Hawala racket: Prime suspect from Amritsar ran export business

Amritsar, February 21

The losses incurred during the Covid pandemic forced Rajiv Jain, a resident of Amritsar, to get involved in the hawala racket. He used to run export business of spices and natural gum in Indonesia.

Jain is one of the three suspects nabbed by the Amritsar rural police on Tuesday. Besides Jain, the police had arrested Gurpreet Singh of Ferozepur and Anokh Singh of Jagraon along with Rs 55.90 lakh of hawala money. They have been sent on two-day police remand.

SSP Amritsar (Rural), Satinder Singh said that Jain had made eight hawala transactions and each totalled Rs 7-8 lakh. He used to do so on 1 per cent commission. He came in contact with a foreign-based hawala racketeer through a Pakistani importer, who had introduced him to a drug trafficker there.

Investigations revealed that during the Covid pandemic, he suffered huge losses in his export business as his clients did not pick up the containers having the consignments.

He was currently residing in Amritsar, while his family is living in Indonesia. The police have found some Pakistan and foreign contact numbers. Jain also has a professional pilot licence.