NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate ( ED ) has carried out searches at 16 premises of alleged hawala operators in Delhi and adjoining areas and recovered Rs 3.65 crore, including foreign currency worth Rs 46 lakh, officials said on Thursday.

During the searches, which were carried out on the business premises, offices and residences, the ED seized Indian currency amounting to Rs 3.19 crore and foreign currencies amounting to about Rs 46 lakh, thus making a total seizure of worth about Rs 3.65 crore, an official said.

These operators were involved in huge hawala transactions across several countries. Some of the hawala operators worked in close association and used each other's network for carrying out illegal transfer of money, the official alleged.

Articles which were seized include several documents related to hawala transactions, property related documents, cheque books, diaries of contacts of hawala operators and their networks.

Besides this, 11 laptops, 62 mobile phones, one Macbook, two ipads, four hard disks, four pen-drives and nine CDs connected with hawala transactions have also been seized, the official said.

The accused will be examined for violation of FEMA rules. For this operation, about 60 ED officials were deputed at 16 premises in Delhi and NCR, another official said.

"These raids by the ED have made a big dent in the existing hawala networks in Delhi and their associates in India and abroad and it could further lead to unearthing of deeper roots of hawala networks which bleed the country," he said.

