In a sudden development, the Enforcement Directorate sleuths on Thursday conducted surprise raids over ten locations in Kolkata following a tip-off from the Information Bureau from Delhi, sources said.
The ED conducted simultaneous raids in the offices of a number of travel agencies and money exchange agencies at Burrbazar, Posta, Park Street, New Market, Bhawanipore and other areas sources said.
According to sources, the ED received a tip-off from the IB that crores of rupees were being siphoned out of India through hawala channels over the past several months.
Though the officials remained tight-lipped, other sources said news of hawala transactions had been pouring in since the past 5-6 months.
Whether these were linked to demonetisation or not were yet to be confirmed but sufficient documents were recovered from the raided areas, sources said.