Kolkata, April 16 || The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a Bangladeshi citizen who was not only residing in Kolkata after possessing fake Indian identity documents, including a passport, but also was operating a hawala racket from his residence.
The arrested person has been identified as Azad Mullick, the owner of Mullick Trading Corporation. He was arrested late Tuesday night at his residence near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, which is located on the northern outskirts of Kolkata.
Sources said the investigating officials of the Central agency have tracked that the arrested had transferred Rs 2.62 crore last year from India to Bangladesh using the Hawala route.
He will be presented at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata on Wednesday. He was booked under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA.
Earlier on Tuesday night, the ED officials also arrested Alok Nath, a kingpin of a racket engaged in arranging fake Indian documents, including Indian passports to illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. He was arrested near the international border with Bangladesh at Gede in Nadia district.
The ED officials conducted raid and search operations at multiple locations in Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, and Nadia districts in connection with the Central agency’s investigation into the money laundering in the fake passport case.