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25 proxy accounts in Bareilly bank uncover suspected money laundering: Officials
Bareilly police are further investigating the matter after registering an FIR against three bank employees at City Kotwali police station on Tuesday earlier this week.
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Money transactions worth several crores detected in 25 salary bank accounts of a private bank branch in Bareilly, operational under different names, have raised suspicions of a major money laundering or ‘Hawala’ (illegal and unaccounted money transactions) network behind these proxy accounts, confirmed senior police officials on Friday.
They said Bareilly police are further investigating the matter after registering an FIR against three bank employees at City Kotwali police station on Tuesday earlier this week.
Bareilly circle officer (CO) City-I, Pankaj Kumar Srivastava, informed that the FIR was lodged under Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) section 318 (4) for cheating and dishonestly inducing a person to deliver property based on findings submitted by a special team formed to probe the suspicious transactions.
Another senior police official said the special team was investigating the transactions on the directives of additional superintendent of police (ASP) North, Mukesh Chandra Mishra, after receiving a Suspicious Transactions Report (STR) from the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) about these 25 salary bank accounts operational in the civil lines branch of the private bank for the past few years.
He explained that an STR is filed when a financial transaction appears suspicious. Such reports, submitted by financial institutions, are key tools in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. FIU-IND is the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing, and disseminating information related to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and foreign FIUs.
“In the matter, the FIR was filed by sub-inspector Veer Bhadra Singh against three bank employees—Mohd Naseem, Ishtaqar Ali, and Hemant Kumar, the salary account head of the branch—as well as other unidentified persons for opening 25 proxy salary accounts using job letters from a private mobile company under different names. However, these accounts were operated by other suspicious individuals,” the official stated.
He further added, “One such individual is Bhagwan Das, a resident of Kurtura village under Fatehganj West police station in Bareilly, whose name and identity were used to open a salary bank account, though he never operated it.”
Infamous for Hawala operators
Senior police officials revealed that Dhantiya village, under Fatehganj West police station limits in Bareilly, is infamous for ‘Hawala’ operations. Several individuals from this village have been linked to illegal money transactions in the past.
They explained that Hawala operators often use similar proxy accounts for financial transactions, opening them under the names of local villagers. The same is suspected in this case as well. Even Kurtura village, listed as the address of Bhagwan Das, whose name and identity were used for a proxy account, is located near Dhantiya village, they added.
Officials pointed out that Hawala transactions are frequently used for terror funding and money laundering—processes that involve illegally concealing the origins of money obtained through illicit activities such as cyber fraud, drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption, embezzlement, and treason—before converting the funds into a seemingly legitimate source, often through front organisations.
