Ex-Gulf NRIs serve as agents

Victims told they won draws conducted by firms like Airtel and asked to deposit money for charges

The Pakistani scammers have their accomplices in India, mostly Gulf returnees, who got acquainted with these Pak nationals at work places in the Gulf.

Once the victim deposits money in an Indian bank account, the amount is withdrawn by the Indian agent and then handed over to hawala operators who send it to Pakistan usually through Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In this racket, Indian accomplices get about 10 per cent to 15 per cent commission.

The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) had earlier alerted the Indian Home Ministry that hundreds of bank accounts in India were being used by Pakistani fraudsters.

While Pakistani scammers do all the talking and the looting, their Indian agents open numerous bank accounts to collect the cash and withdraw them through ATMs before sending it to Pakistan through hawala.

In a case detected by the Central Crime Station, Hyderabad, the police found around 120 bank accounts operated by two Indian accomplices. One of them was identified as Sulaiman Kutty from Kerala. Police arrested Sulaiman from his native place in Palakkadu district in Kerala, but the second accomplice, Nasir, who pumps hawala money to Pakistan is still absconding.

“The first part of the operation is similar to the Nigerian scam, in which the looted money is parked in a bank account operated by Indian agents. Once the cash is withdrawn from ATMs, the liquid cash is handed over to hawala agents to send it to Pakistan,” said an official from the CID.

“There is already a wellorganised hawala chain operating in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Kerala, which connects to Gulf gangs. Their modus operandi is to circulate the money in India itself but transfer the value abroad. For example, people working in Gulf, who want to transfer money to their families in India approach hawala gangs as they offer their service for a meagre charge. After the Gulf racketeers receive the money, their counterparts in India distribute the cash, which is earlier looted through scams. In this way the value of the asset is transferred to Pakistan also. They also use gold to transfer the assets,” said the CID official.