The Uttar Pradesh police's Special Task Force (STF), which is probing a suspected hawala racket linked to China, has arrested four Chinese nationals who were allegedly staying illegally in India.
Those held have been identified as Johnson alias He Zhuang, Ryen alias Ren Chao, Zeng Haozhe alias Jon, and Zeng Dye, they said.
The four accused were staying in Greater Noida without a valid visa since 2020 and are connected to Xue Fei alias Kelay (36), a Chinese national who was arrested on June 13 on similar charges along with his Indian girlfriend Petekhrinuo (22) who hails from Nagaland, police said.
"These four Chinese nationals were arrested by the STF over Tuesday and Wednesday for staying in India without valid visa," said an official. Xue Fei and Petekhrinuo were arrested from a Gurugram hotel by the Uttar Pradesh police, close on the heels of the arrest of two more Chinese men who were trying to cross over to Nepal through Bihar but were apprehended by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
Xue Fei had floated several companies in India, most of them bogus, and was also running an illegal luxury restro-bar in a Greater Noida village that chiefly had Chinese patrons only, according to investigators.
The STF of Noida had said that they are also looking at money laundering, hawala transactions, a web of bogus companies, even espionage.
Police said transactions details they had recovered pointed to hawala deals being made at the club. Police have found the transactions in the account of Fei's live-in partner, Petekhrinuo, who lived with him in a rented apartment at Jaypee Greens. Police teams are tracing the names that have popped up in transactions in the arrested woman's account and from the register (recovered from the club). "Till we get hold of their Indian accomplice and question people related to the two or manage to bust the entire nexus, nothing can be ruled out. Other investigating agencies are also looking into the matter," said police.
Xue Fei's main Indian partner is believed to be a Gujarat-based businessman, Ravi Natwarlal. For the premises in Gharbara village that was converted into a club with over 50 rooms, a bar and a pool, Xue Fei and three others - a Chinese national and two Indians - had signed a rent agreement for five years in 2020. Police teams have also arrested Natwarlal on June 27
In a separate development, the Noida Police had on Wednesday detained 14 Chinese nationals, including a woman, for allegedly staying in India despite having expired work visas.
They worked for a mobile phone company but their visas expired in 2020. The 14 Chinese nationals were sent to a detention centre in Delhi where proceedings for their deportation were started, according to officials.