Kolkata: Two senior officials of a beverage company were arrested by the criminal investigation department (CID) after the state detective agency busted a Pakistan-based hawala network, run in West Bengal in the garb of a fake lottery racket, through which the accused duo used to send money of the cheated people to the neighbouring country.
The accused were Rajesh Ghosh (44), director of Pran Beverage India Private Ltd and Bidhan Kirtaniya (38), manager (sales administration) of the same firm, said CID deputy inspector general (operations) Nishat Parvez on Sunday. Residences of both the accused and the company’s head office at Chinar Park in New Town were raided and searched by the CID leading to the seizure of several incriminating documents.
Both, caught on January 25, were booked by the CID under sections 120(b), 406, 411, 414, 419, 420, 424, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 (D) of the I.T. Act (offences of cheating, receiving and concealing stolen property) in a case which was initiated at the Egra police station in East Midnapore on the suo moto complaint by the CID. They were remanded in the CID custody by the Contai Court.
The unique modus operandi of the racket was the brainchild of a group of Pakistan-based racketeers who lured the people in West Bengal and other places in India of winning lottery prizes. Giving details of the racket Mr Parvez elaborated that the people received messages coming from numbers starting with +92/0092 (ISD code of Pakistan) on their mobile phones and WhatsApp messenger.
He added: “The messages told the people that they won huge amounts in lottery prizes to be given on payment of processing fees.
“Once the fees are deposited in bank accounts, the same used to be withdrawn quickly by agents of racketeers in India and later sent abroad through various hawala channels and exports. Role of some officials of Pran Beverages (India) Private Limited surfaced in receiving the cheated money.”
The CID traced the racket following the arrest of Umar, a key accused in a bank-fraud case, from in New Delhi, according to sources.
Interrogating him and his aide Guddu before launching the probe the state detective agency found that Umar had earlier sent money to Malaysia and Pakistan, sources revealed. Rajesh and Bidhan sent around Rs 55 lakhs to Pakistan through hawala network in the last few months, the CID suspect.
