Zaveri Bazaar intercom facility puzzles ED, crucial evidence against hawala trader out of reach

Since last two weeks, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been struggling to connect the dots to get crucial evidences against bullion-cum-hawala trader Manoj Punamiya who has converted his illegal money into legal post demonetisation.

Till now, the agency has been successful only to find a complex web of shell companies with bogus addresses, which were used to deposit and withdrawal of Rs 150-300 crore by Punamiya.

"We have come across at least 3-4 layers of around 50 shell companies. The multilayer is quite complex, which ultimately reaches to the beneficiaries", the source told Indiatoday.in

During investigation, it was found that most of the directors of these bogus companies were office-bearers and lower level staff of Balaji group of companies, owned by Punamiya. For this purpose, at least 50 bank accounts in four private banks had been opened.

The agency has directed all the banks to submit the complete details of account-holders and an explanation too on how such big transactions went unnoticed by bank officials.

Bullion traders misusing telecom loopholes

What is giving sleepless nights to investigators is, there is no crucial evidence in hand to prove that Punamiya had purchased gold from a bullion merchant.

Thanks to the intercom facilities available within bullion fraternity in Zaveri Bazaar and Kalbadevi area, not a single conversation on telephone ever gets recorded.

Unlike landline service, telephonic conversations done via intercom (meant for internal communication) between two parties does not get recorded. "Therefore, getting call data recordings (CDRs) of Punamiya and other bullion traders is highly impossible", the source said.

Few bullion traders at Zaveri Bazaar explained Indiatoday.in that within the radius of 2-3 kilometre of Zaveri Bazaar all the trade-related talks takes place only on intercom instruments. These services are provided by local private operators, charging Rs 1500-2000 on monthly basis.

"A cable has been laid in Zaveri Bazaar. Every customer has been given four digit numbers for identification. Each intercom facility could cover a range of 500 metre. It means, a bullion trader could speak to atleast 100-200 traders in that range, without getting noticed by any agencies," a bullion trader said.

Interestingly, the intercom facility which was meant for internal communication within the shop is now getting used for all legal and illegal activities by bullion and hawala traders.

Punamiya claimed that he had received purchase orders on phone and handed over gold to unknown persons. When examined by the ED, nothing got reflected in book of accounts.

Moreover, nothing was found in CDRs of mobile phone or landline calls (where searches were conducted) as every business conversations was done on intercom.

How money got deposited?

The ED suspects that bullion traders, in early November, sold US dollars and gold at a hefty premium in exchange for old currency notes worth Rs 70 crore.

"The US dollars were sold at Rs 100 or more against the then existing rates of around Rs 67. All the transactions were done through RTGS (Real time gross settlement system)," the source said.

After getting credible information, offices of Punamiya and Sanjay Jain of Aabhushan were raided after ED detected unusual flow of funds into two accounts run by the three traders at the Zaveri Bazaar branches.

Funds worth Rs 70 crore were deposited into these accounts within a span of 10 days and then transferred to several other accounts soon after (within 2-3 days).

Intention was to bring in demonetised currency of around Rs 150-300 crore into legal channels using fictitious transactions, with the local support of bank officials.

The case has been registered under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The agency has issued summon to Manoj Punamiya for the questioning in ED office.

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