Ludhiana: 2 cousins held over bogus billing operation aiding ‘hawala’ transactions

According to police, the accused were running a well-organised operation, issuing bogus bills for clients to legitimise illegal transactions

The CIA-I staff of police commissionerate on Tuesday arrested two individuals allegedly involved in bogus billing operation, officials said.

The police said the two cousins were involved in fraudulent billing activities, aiding people dealing in ‘‘hawala’ money by providing forged bills. (HT File)

According to the police, the accused were aiding hawala ‘transactions’. The added that the accused, Mani Bansal of Ram Nagar and Babhiv Bansal of Chhawani Mohalla, were running the operation from an office located in New Tagore Nagar on Gill Road.

Police said the duo was nabbed based on a tip-off and a first-information report (FIR) was registered following a statement by assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Jaswinder Singh from Division Number 6 police station.

The ASI said the police had received information that the two cousins were involved in fraudulent billing activities, aiding people dealing in ‘‘hawala’ money by providing forged bills.

According to police, the accused were running a well-organised operation, issuing bogus bills for clients to legitimise illegal transactions. After a thorough investigation, the duo was arrested from their office, and incriminating documents were recovered.

ASI Singh said the accused are being interrogated to gather more information about their clients and the extent of their criminal activities.

The accused were booked under sections 318 (4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 336(2) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), 336(3) (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 340(2) (using a forged document as genuine) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

He said more information is expected from the accused during questioning.