Kahlon sent $3mn to Oz via hawala: ED

Kolkata: The Australian connection of former Kolkata Port Trust chairman RPS Kahlon seems to have landed him in deep trouble, with international agencies flagging his name for hawala transactions. Kahlon has allegedly siphoned off $3mn to Australia in two years.
ED, which raided seven premises in Kolkata and Mumbai on Thursday, stumbled upon crucial inputs to corroborate Kahlon's involvement.
The 1984 batch Bengal cadre IAS officer took charge of KoPT in 2013. Soon after, ED officers claimed, he started stashing money away in offshore accounts and he had a conduit in Australia who was his "receiver". The agency has summoned his wife Cybilia, an Australian woman who owns an NGO that exists only on paper.
ED officers learnt about the hawala transactions three months ago. "We seized bank documents and account details but did not find too many relevant papers at Kahlon's home. Sensitive documents seem to have been removed after his arrest in March," said an ED officer. Kahlon used the mobile of a CA, Kamal Somani, whose Salt Lake home was raided. Somani floated bogus firms to shift out money, ED said. Another CA, A Ladha's office was raided.