Illustration for representational purpose

BHOPAL: The Income Tax Department on Friday claimed to have busted a nexus of hawala operator who was running an overseas money laundering racket from Jabalpur town of Madhya Pradesh .

Officials have seized evidences suggesting laundering of Rs 4,000 crore in India and abroad within the past six years. This amount is likely to rise during further investigations, say officials.

Department’s principal director (investigations) Patanjali Jha said documents are being scrutinised for details. He refused to comment further.

In the last such case, hawala transactions worth Rs 1,500 crore were found during searches at a toy shop owner in Jabalpur last year, said officials.

Sources said a series of raids and surveys are being carried out by sleuths of department's Jabalpur investigation unit over the past few weeks in different areas of Jabalpur, Siddhi and Gwalior, with specific inputs on financial irregularities and money laundering, a senior official said.

A survey was conducted on one such group in Jabalpur’s Shanti Nagar on premises of one Khubchand Lalwani alias Banti, who claims to be a business consultant besides trading into incense sticks and metals.

A laptop containing transaction accounts, handwritten notes and phone numbers of business and political ‘clients’ have been found with corroborative evidences, say sources.

Lalwani turned up before the I-T sleuths 48 hours after searches at his house, say sources. A sum of Rs 65 lakh in cash was also confiscated from the premises.

Documents pertaining to his linkages with some influential people in and around Jabalpur is also under scanner. He was laundering money charging Rs 300 for Rs 1 lakh with an average transaction of Rs 1.5 crores per day.

The I-T department's Bhopal unit has confiscated Rs 2.3 crore in cash since the implementation of model code of conduct in the state.

