2G scam money went to tax safe havens via Surat: ED

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Ahmedabad, July 10 

Investigations into Rs 5,395-crore hawala scam have revealed that operators used firms in Surat to transfer huge sums to tax havens outside the country, leading the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to suspect that a similar operation was involved in the 2G scam.

The revelation came after the Ahmedabad zonal unit of ED arrested a Dubai-based businessman Manish Shah from Surat on July 1 for his suspected involvement in the multi-crore swindling.

According to sources in the ED, Shah’s arrest had initially led the agency to evidence that shows that money was transferred from Chennai to Dubai and Hongkong thorough Surat.

New evidence now shoes that the money was also transferred to known tax havens, such as Switzerland, from Chennai, also re-routed through Surat.

Sources claim Shah, who owns a firm called 'Mabrook Trading' in Dubai, received more than Rs 700 crore through various hawala channels from Afroz Fatta and Madanlal Jain, who have been suspected of running a hawala racket of Rs 5,395 crore and were subsequently arrested.

Sources claimed that the evidence points that some Rs 10,000 crore was have been transferred in the two-month period between December 2013 and January 2014. Shah, who the ED believes has been running his company in Dubai on behalf of Jain, is suspected of transferring money from companies floated by Fatta and Jain through various Dubai based hawala operators.

Several searches in Surat offices of some diamond traders, including Fatta and Jain, conducted in March 2014 brought the massive racket to the fore. The duo is believed to have drawn up bogus import bills showing massive purchases from foreign diamond traders to transfer money outside Indian using their bank accounts. PTI