Govt sniffs banks' role in hawala

Shinde says govt tracking terror funds

The Centre is likely to probe allegations of money laundering against multinational banks, including HSBC, which may help terror groups operating in India.

A few couriers who were arrested had confessed that money was being sent from Gulf through Western Union Money Transfer. “Western Union Money  Transfer is co-operating with the government investigative agencies,” government sources said.

Addressing a press conference, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Saturday said the government had information that terror groups operating in India and outside were investing in stock markets through various methods.

The sources added that the investigative agencies would also look into reports that funds were being routed from Pakistan and a few Gulf countries to terror groups operating in India using banking networks. The home ministry has already written to the finance ministry requesting it to constantly monitor huge money transactions, including deposits, in banks.

However, the sources said it had nothing to do with Arvind Kejriwal’s allegations of money laundering against HSBC. The multinational bank on Friday denied the charges and said it “takes compliance with the law seriously.”

Earlier, there were reports that some of the private institutions based in West Asia were sending funds to people based in Jammu and Kashmir.

 In September,  the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had said 35 stock brokers had been probed for possible lapses in controls related to money laundering and terror financing.

 The inspections by Sebi followed actions taken by stock exchanges and depositories against more than 300 market entities for violations and discrepancies related to Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML and CFT) regulations in 2011-12 fiscal.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) had received five suspicious transaction reports (STRs) during 2009-10, four during 2010-11 and one case till November 2011.