Bhubaneswar: Raid on a hotel in the Odisha capital on Wednesday in connection with a betting racket revealed the involvement of a hawala gang, which was involved in duping people of crores of rupees in the name of multiplying their money.
The Commissionerate Police have arrested eight persons in connection with the racket. Among them are Havildar Dillip Mallick and Constables Sandeep Prusty and Prafulla Bhuyan, who were allegedly caught ‘lifting’ lakhs of rupees during the raid.
Three of the accused are police personnel. They are Dilip Mallik and Sandeep Prusty of Bhubaneswar UPD and Prafullla Bhuyan of Cuttack UPD.
Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash informed that Kamal Saha, a businessman of Karanjia in Mayurbhanj district, had informed the Air Field police station about being cheated of lakhs by a group of men.
The businessman had lent Rs 10 lakh to one Maheswar Sahu, who did not repay the amount and instead, along with three others, hatched a plan to dupe him of Rs 1 crore. by promising lucrative returns through a scheme
One Prashant Panda of Puri then called Kamal to Bhubaneswar assuring him that he will gain Rs 1.5 crore on a deposit of Rs 1 crore. Kamal had brought Rs 1 crore with him in a bag with 40 bundles of Rs 2.5 lakh each.
Air Field Police was tipped off about the betting racket. They reached the hotel and detained the fraudsters. On further interrogation, they found that it was a hawala racket and arrested all five persons, including the businessman, from the spot.
The other two arrested are Prashant Padhi and Raj Raibahadur.
Police seized the mobile phones of the accused and the cash bag. During counting, police found 31 bundles of Rs 2.5 lakh each in the bag. Another nine bundles were recovered later but Rs 50,000 was still missing.
Further investigation is on to ascertain the involvement of others in the racket.
Kamal was a victim of the Angadia gang.
Who are Angadias?
Angadia system works on mutual trust and is an unofficial courier cum banking service. They are the conduit to the transfer of crores of rupees belonging to traders and rich people. Their area of operation is mainly between Mumbai and Gujarat, stated a report in OneIndia.
