Suspected hawala operator arrested in Vizag, Rs. 50 lakh cash seized

Visakhapatnam: The city task force arrested an alleged hawala operator at the Dwaraka bus station in Visakhapatnam city on 28 June and seized Rs. 50 lakh cash from him. The man, 58-year-old Grandhi Narasimha Rao, is a resident of Narsapuram in West Godavari district and had come to Vizag to collect cash from some people.

Based on a tip-off, the city task force (CTF), led by ACP A. Trinad Rao, carried out a raid at the bus station and caught Narasimha with Rs. 50,38,000. The latter was unable to produce any documents to support his claims to the cash.

Narasimha works as a clerk at Jayadev Jewellers which is owned by Praveen Kumar. He had come to Vizag to collect cash from two people on behalf of his employer. In May, too, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Narasimha had visited Vizag and collected over Rs. 25 lakh. "We suspect that he is a hawala operator as he is unable to explain the unaccounted cash," Mr. Trinad Rao told reporters.

Narasimha collected the money from two people in Vizag and was caught while he was trying to board a bus to Naraspuram. The CTF handed over the cash and Narasimha to the Two-Town police station for further investigation. The police will try to identify his associates in the alleged hawala racket. A case under Sections 41 and 102 of the CrPC has been registered against him and the Income Tax department has been informed.