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Assets of Bilal attached in diamond hawala racket

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 10/30/2020 9:47:29 AM

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday tweeted attachment of immovable assets of Bilal Haroon Galani, a close aide of Surat diamond hawala racketeer Afroz Fatta, worth Rs 1.80 crore under the prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) in a bogus import case.
The seizures included properties in Mumbai and Surat and bank balances. It is a continuing exercise of unearthing the multi-crore hawala racket that had been going on since 2014. Instead of importing diamonds, Fatta, with the help of Bilal, made bogus import bills to claim purchase of diamonds from foreign traders and then transfer money through the bank accounts.
Last January, the ED had also registered a case under PMLA against Fatta, Madanlal Jain and their firm R A Distributors.
Probe found that nine companies having accounts in ICICI Bank, Surat, had remitted huge amounts of money on the basis of forged bills of entry to three companies in UAE and 15 companies in Hong Kong.