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Hawala racket: Kingpin’s nephew, Amritsar Improvement Trust employee summoned for questioning
Tarn Taran police send reminder to Centre’s Financial Intelligence Unit seeking details of transactions made by accused
The Tarn Taran police have summoned three men, including nephew of the racket kingpin and an employee of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, for questioning in connection with the hawala transactions allegedly made by a former wrestler for getting heroin consignments from Pakistan.
Manohar Lal, alias Anthony Pehalwan, a former Congress leader who joined the BJP in 2017, was arrested by the Tarn Taran police on May 25 after his name emerged during investigation in the case wherein 3-kg heroin smuggled from Pakistan was seized.
The Tarn Taran police’s anti-narcotic cell had arrested one Nishan Singh of Ferozepur district on April 5 with the recovery of heroin. During Nishan’s interrogation, it emerged that Anthony had transferred ₹89 lakh to Pakistan through hawala route for the contraband.
Those called for questioning are Anthony’s nephew Rakesh Kumar, alias Bunty of Yaseen Road, Gagan Sharma, an employee of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, and Gaurav Kumar of Chheharta. Gagan and Gaurav were assisting Anthony in finance-related business.
“As per our information, the three allegedly were making hawala deals at Anthony’s behest. They have been called for financial analysis on Monday,” said a senior police official.
The police have also sent a reminder to the Centre’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for providing details about the hawala transactions made by Anthony and his team in the last few years.
“Though Anthony managed to get bail from a local court on the pretext of age and due to Covid-19, we are seriously monitoring the case as it concerns drug smuggling. Earlier, Anthony revealed during interrogation that he has links in Canada only where his daughter studies. But, our technical teams found that he was in contact with several people in nine countries —US, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, England, Pakistan and Kuwait,” said the official.
He said, “About his two links in Pakistan, Anthony had told us that they are his wrestler friends, but we have confirmed that one of them is a lawyer. Anthony didn’t cooperate during the investigation and we could not interrogate him more due to his ailing condition. Now, things rely on the FUI report which will confirm Anthony’s suspected transactions in the nine countries. He also has links in Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana.”
The police are also awaiting the report of a forensic science laboratory regarding the digital video recorder that was seized from Anthony.
Tarn Taran senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dhruman H Nimbale said their teams are working to ascertain all links of the accused. “We have also sent a reminder to the FUI regarding Anthony’s details. And the report is expected to arrive in a few days.”
