Fake Companies, Unemployed Owners: How a Rs 500 Crore Hawala Racket Operated in Madhya Pradesh

The investigation of a case was transferred to an IPS officer in 2017. In this case, the alleged involvement of close associates of a powerful legislator was found, and a police officer investigating the case was transferred.

Some of the accounts belonged to unemployed youth and vegetable sellers, with transactions amounting to nearly a crore in some cases. Account holders were purportedly shown as heads of fake companies, and the allegedly transferred this amount to the accounts of some companies.

Some account holders, many below the poverty line, would receive amounts ranging from 15,000 to 30,000 rupees monthly. Under the leadership of the then Police Chief Gaurav Tiwari, a police team in Katni district busted a hawala racket in 2017.

During the investigation, the involvement of local businessmen associated with a former MLA who switched from Congress to BJP also surfaced. Tiwari was subsequently transferred to Chhindwara district the same year before the investigation was completed.

Recently, account holders from Ratlam district, located about 700 kilometers from Katni in the western part of the state, filed complaints with the police. The complaints revealed the methods used to transfer money from one account to another.

Three people have been arrested in this case. One of the main complainants in Katni, Ankit Patel, alleged that a transaction of 29 lakh rupees was made from his account.

Patel said, “A transaction of 29 lakh rupees was made from my zero-balance account. I was informed about this by the bank, after which I lodged a complaint with the police.”

Police stated that in the village of Gaetra in Katni, more than 20 zero-balance accounts were opened in a small bank through a common agent, Vivek Patel. Katni’s Police Superintendent Abhishek Ranjan stated, “Transactions ranging from crores of rupees were made in the 20 accounts of the same small finance bank.

Each account shows transactions between 20 lakh and 90 lakh rupees.” The owner of a fast-food stall in Ratlam, Suraj Chaure, filed a complaint that a person named Tulsiram Ojha offered him 15,000 rupees per month in exchange for opening a bank account.

On paper, he was portrayed as the head of a ghost company. A police officer said, “The same kind of inducement was used to open accounts for vegetable sellers, laborers, and employees of a printing press.

These accounts were used for transactions amounting to approximately 50 crores in just one and a half months.” Three individuals, Tulsiram Ojha, Yogesh Sharma, and Suryaprakash Tripathi, have been arrested in Ratlam.

The accused neighbors are from the Bhilwara and Ajmer districts of Rajasthan. Deputy Inspector General of Ratlam Range, Manoj Singh, confirmed the facts of the case and stated that the money trail extends not only to Madhya Pradesh but also to other states.