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Police crack down on hawala dealers

MALAPPURAM: A special police team that raided the houses and offices of ten major hawala dealers in the district on Thursday seized a pistol and documents capable of incriminating them for illegal money transactions running into crores of rupees.

In a single instance, a land deal agreement for Rs.400 crore was seized from Manalaya Shamsuddeen’s house at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district. The document, signed between Mr. Shamsuddeen and a Coimbatore-based company, was for the sale of nearly 150 acres of land owned by Mr. Shamsuddeen in Coimbatore. Mr. Shamsuddeen has agreed in the document to sell the land at a rate of Rs.2 crore an acre.

The police team also seized an imported pistol from Mr. Shamsuddeen. However, the police said they could not confirm whether the weapon needed a licence. Mr. Shamsuddeen claimed that it was an air pistol requiring no licence. The police said they would send the weapon for a ballistic examination.

The police team headed by Inspector-General of Police (Ernakulam Range) Vinson M. Paul conducted simultaneous raids at the houses of 10 people identified by the police as ‘active hawala dealers’ in different parts of the district.

Apart from Mr. Shamsuddeen’s house, raids were conducted in the houses of Ramapuram Yousuf and Panangagara Kunhumoideen aka Kunhutty in Perinthalmanna; Cheerangan brothers Ashraf, Ishaq and Haneefa in Vengara; A.T. Ummer in Venniyoor; Parappan Abdurahman in Tirurangadi; Mohammed Ali in Naduvattom; and Ali Mohammed in Valluvamburam.

The early morning swoop caught many of them by surprise. Crime Branch Deputy Superintendent of Police Varghese Thomas, Circle Inspectors A.P. Shoukkathali, M.P. Mohanachandran, Jaison Abraham and P. Virkraman, and 15 Sub-Inspectors and several revenue officials took part in the raids.

Several documents, such as bank passbooks and account books, indicating heavy money transactions were seized by the raiding teams. However, no cash was seized and none arrested.

The raids began at 8 a.m. and ended by 11.30 a.m. Apart from eight to ten policemen, each raid team contained two revenue officials and a couple of woman constables.

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