In perhaps the biggest seizure of hard cash and valuables in recent times, the Income Tax officials — based on intelligence inputs from the NIA — confiscated Indian currency notes, gold and diamond jewellery collectively amounting to nearly Rs 200 crore, from four tempos parked outside the Mumbai Central Railway Station on Monday.
Acting on a tip-off from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the I-T sleuths recovered 102 bags containing innumerable currency notes of high-denomination, gold and diamond jewellery, from four tempos — operated by city-based Angadias (traditional couriers) and arrested 47 people, including some Angadias, in connection with the seizure.
The arrested people are being questioned on details like names of senders and recipients. The “dirty cash” and other valuables, staked in bags, were seized while they were being transported to Ahmedabad by train.
The I-T officials were pre-occupied with the counting of currency and valuation of gold and diamond jewellery all through Tuesday.
“From the counting of notes and valuation of seized gold and diamond jewellery that we have done so far, I can safely say that the value of the seized currency notes and other material is more than Rs 100 crore. Even going by the conservative
estimates, we may end up with a total figure ranging anywhere anywhere from Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore,” a senior I-T official said on Tuesday.
Apart from deploying several of its officials for counting the seized currency notes, the I-T department requisitioned for four counting machines from the Reserve Bank of India for counting the cash accurately.
“We will be able to come out with the exact worth of the seized cash, gold and diamond jewellery in a day or two,” the I-T official said.
The currency and other valuables were being taken by Angadias — who were to board the Gujarat Mail that leaves Mumbai Central at 10 pm and reaches Ahmedabad at 6.25 am the following day — when the apparent “contraband” was seized by the I-T officials.
Working on specific Intelligence inputs given to them by the NIA, the I-T officials zeroed in on four trucks— carrying the bags stacked with hard cash and other valuables — that had arrived from the Bhuleshwar-Opera House area at the Mumbai Central Railway station, the origin point of long-distance Western Railway trains, at 9 pm.
After searching the four vehicles and questioning the people accompanying the “contraband”, the I-T officials established that they were indeed transporting huge cache of currency notes of high denominations, gold and other valuables.
Before long, the IT officials asked the people either on board or those accompanying the four vehicles — comprising angadias, drivers, helpers and office boys of diamond traders — to go with them to Scindia House in down town Ballard Estate, the headquarters of Investigation wing of IT department.
Talking to mediapersons, Director-General Income Tax (Investigation) Swatantra Kumar said that the investigators were in the possession of codes and addresses — which pointed towards the senders/recipients.
On what prompted the IT department to conduct the operation, Kumar said, “We got a tip-off from the NIA that there is going to be a major unaccounted cash transfer from Mumbai to Gujarat. In these bags we have found cash, diamonds, gold and silver jewellery which we feel is unaccounted and thus transferred through angadia mode.”
Queried about the next course of action, Kumar said that his department officials were in the process of checking and cross-checking the details provided by the Angadias from whom they had seized cash and other valuables.
Meanwhile, the seizure operation sent shock waves through the Angandia operators’ circles. Describing their traditional courier-cum-banking traditional service as a ‘day-to-day operation’, Angadias — gathered outside the Scindia House at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai where IT officials were busy counting seized cash and assessing the gold, diamond jewellery.
“The IT officers have blown things out of proportion....this not some ‘Hawala’ transaction or fake currency racket. This is just simple ‘Angadia’ trade. Everyone knows it. Still there so much of fussIJ” Dhirenbhai Modi, an Angadia community member and functionary of All India Angadia Association, told media persons on Tuesday.
Questioning the authenticity of some media reports, which pegged the valued of seized cash at Rs 2,500 crore, Modi asked: “Can you count Rs 2,500 crore in a day, even with machinesIJ”
Modi also contested the media reports of fake currency and terror-money being circulated to various parts of the nation using the age-old angadia services, which originated in Gujarat.
“The news been played by various channels wrongly suggests that terrorist organisations have found willing partners in the widespread network of Angadias of Gujarat, Mumbai and Nashik to transfer their ill-gotten money,” Modi said.
“We are just the wheels of delivery mechanism and nothing else. The IT department has detained 47 of our people, including some angadia agents. The arrested people are absolutely innocent,” Modi said, as he urged the IT officials to immediately release the detained persons and return the accounted parcels.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil said that Mumbai police would step in only in case of any terror angle. “IT officials are investigating the source of funds and where it was meant for. Only if there is a terror angle, the case will be handed over to the Mumbai police,” Patil said.
On his part, DG (IT) Kumar declined to comment on the speculation about “hawala” transfer of pre-election fund or terror money and stated, “Whatever investigations reveal, we will share the information with NIA.”
Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Phadnavis charged that the seizure showed that the State Home Department was lax, given that right under its nose, such a big consignment of cash and jewellry was being transferred. However, Aam Admi Party leader Anjalia Damania said that a thorough investigation was necessary — to ascertain whether these funds were meant to be given to any politician.
The sharpest reaction came from Samajwadi Party’s State unit chief Abu Asim Azmi, who alleged that the entire funds were to be used during the next lok Sabha elections in Gujarat. “I am confident that the IT and NIA would come out with facts in the coming days,” Azmi said.