The Gujarat police have arrested a Chinese national and two others for allegedly using a shell company to transfer Rs 1 crore to China through hawala, an official said on Wednesday. According to the police, bank accounts of various Chinese shell companies with Rs 15 crore were frozen, and names of more such companies that have come under suspicion, the official from Ahmedabad crime branch said
The police on Tuesday arrested Chinese national Ping Huang, who is accused of transferring Rs 1 crore to China through hawala via Bangkok with the help of his two Indian accomplices, he said. The other accused Sanjay Patel, who owns an angadia (courier) firm, and Suraj Maurya, who worked for a Chinese hawala agent identified as Xie Cheng, have also been nabbed, the official said.
Huang is the director of Shuangma Machinery, which manufactures plastic injection moulding machines and he would allegedly receive a part of the cost of the product in cash after billing it at a lower price, he said. In December 2020, the company had transferred Rs 1 crore to China using hawala route via Bangkok with the help Huang and his two Indian accomplices, he said. Huang was arrested from Delhi, and the police retrieved the contacts of Maurya and Cheng from his mobile phone, the official said.
Cheng's employee Maurya, who looked after his operation in Mumbai, received Rs 1 crore through Patel and got it transferred to the Chinese bank account of RMB Bank via Bangkok, he said. The trio have been arrested under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 471 (forgery), 477 (fraud), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, in a case registered at Naranpura police station. Maurya had met Cheng in China, and after returning to India, he started handling the affairs of Cheng in Mumbai, the official said.
"As per Cheng's instructions, Maurya used angadiya firm to collect cash from different parts of the country. The money was thereafter transferred to Bangkok, from where it was transferred to the Chinese bank account / Ali Pay account of RMB," he said.
A probe also revealed that Maurya had worked as a director in five Chinese shell companies at Cheng's behest, and a probe into these companies is underway, the official added.
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