National currency scam; director foreign funding found

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Crores of rupees benami transactions were being done directly from abroad after opening bank accounts in the name of college students and youth of the city.

The names of mainly two countries have been revealed in the probe. Due to foreign networks, the intelligence agencies are keeping mum. According to details, intelligence agencies and city police jointly busted the national currency racket on Wednesday.

Utsavkumar Chandubhai Bhesania (23, Surat, Gujarat) with the help of Rishikesh Shivnath Bhagwat (23, Sinhagad Colony, N-6) and Anurag Bhausaheb Ghodke (21, Mhasobanagar, Jadhavwadi) used to open bank accounts of young college students from the city.

The accused used to pay commissions to youths and take their necessary documents after opening the accounts. Rishikesh and Anurag were helping him for this.

Interestingly, Utsavkumar added them to a Telegram group related to the racket a few days ago. The officers have a high possibility that both of them have become an important part of the racket in a short period of time.

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M’wada given to Utsavkumar

Utsavkumar who basically hails from Surat, is a college student. He has been in touch with some youths of the city for six months. Before that, he would get work done from other youths. The investigation team is also searching for those youths.

A total of Rs 7 K was paid to the account holder, while Anurag and Rishikesh were getting money directly on a percentage. Utsavkumar was given the responsibility of the network in the entire Marathwada for this racket by the masterminds. The names of 30 youths in the city were released by Thursday. Two of them were thoroughly interrogated on Thursday night and released after issuing a notice.

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Challenge to probe closed accounts

Utsavkumar was taking bank account passbooks and debit cards of city youth to Gujarat. Crores of transactions were being done through the bank accounts. The accused were adding their mobile number for OTP. After four to five transactions, they would close the account. It is a challenge for investigative agencies to probe hundreds of closed accounts. Intelligence agencies are likely to get large evidence from those accounts.

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Funding from abroad

There is strong evidence that this entire racket is being funded from abroad. The extent of the crime has been greatly increased with the foreign connection. So, the investigation agencies are adamant that this racket is being run for anti-national activities rather than benami transactions.