Chandigarh, Nov 1 (PTI) The Haryana Police’s State Crime Branch has cracked down on a major organised crime network and arrested seven accused involved in illegal money transfers abroad through fake companies, an official statement said here on Friday.
The investigation revealed that the accused had illegally transferred approximately Rs 700 crore to foreign bank accounts under the guise of business transactions.
According to the statement, the police first received a complaint on March 18 regarding suspicious financial transactions.
“Acting on the complaint, Haryana’s Director General of Police, Shatrujeet Kapur, directed the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Additional Director General of Police, State Crime Branch, and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Gurugram, Nitish Aggarwal.
“During the investigation, it was uncovered that the accused had systematically created fake companies under the names of ‘dummy directors’ to carry out illegal transactions,” it said.
These fake directors opened bank accounts with the cooperation of bank officials, completing the necessary e-KYC formalities, while the accused retained control over these accounts, including ATM cards, net banking credentials and registered mobile SIMs.
The companies, falsely registered in the names of these dummies, operated imports and exports through Gujarat and Mumbai ports, claiming business transactions with foreign companies.
“By inflating the prices on invoices far beyond market rates, the accused funnelled large amounts of money abroad and earned hefty commissions on each dollar transferred illegally,” said the statement.
The gang transferred funds to fake company accounts by showing fictitious sales and purchases.
“Major account transactions were carried out by converting these rupees into dollars, which were then sent to foreign company accounts. The accused even rented goods from foreign companies and documented them as purchased, importing these goods only to later re-export them without receiving any payment back, as per the documents,” it said.
To avoid detection, the accused maintained separate addresses, bank records and import-export documents for each company, making it challenging for authorities such as the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Customs, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central GST to track the discrepancies, the official statement further said.
Among those arrested, three are from Delhi while the others are from Dehradun, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Faridabad.
The SIT has filed a comprehensive charge sheet against five accused. During the raids, the police seized a substantial amount of forged documents, 26 mobile phones, laptops, company stamps and other incriminating evidence.
One of the arrested individuals also has previous cases of murder and grievous harm cases registered against him.
The Haryana Police’s Special Investigation Team continues to investigate the matter under the supervision of senior officials to dismantle this network fully and prevent further illegal financial activities, it said. PTI SUN KSS KSS
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