HC quashes warrant against 7 accused in an alleged hawala scam

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court quashed a non-bailable warrant issued by a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court against seven accused in an alleged Rs 5,395-crore hawala scam.

"Order passed by the designated judge under the PML Act, so far as the issue of the warrant is concerned, is hereby ordered to be quashed," Gujarat High Court's Justice J B Pardiwala said.

However, the High Court made it clear that applicants shall regularly appear before the PMLA court on the date fixed for hearing and mark their presence.

The Gujarat High Court acted on the pleas of accused Ahmedabad-based traders Pankaj Thakkar, Sagar Shah, and Karul Shah along with the Mumbai-based traders Dharmendra Roliya, Hitesh Jain, Praveenkumar Jain and Kaushal Shah who sought to quash the non-bailable warrant issued by the PMLA court on October 29.

On October 29, Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a supplementary charge sheet and named six accused people along with four others for illegal transactions of Rs 750 crore.

The scam is linked to an alleged Rs 5,395-crore hawala scam, in which Surat-based diamond traders Afroz Fatta and Mumbai-based trader Madanlal Jain were booked as the main accused.

On July 19, ED had filed its first charge sheet in the alleged Rs 5,395-crore scam and booked Fatta as well as Madanlal Jain for sourcing and routing alleged hawala cash to Surat through couriers (angadias).

On March 21, ED had busted a hawala scam during search operations at the Surat-based offices of some diamond traders including Fatta and Jain.

Allegedly, instead of importing diamonds, they made bogus import bills, claiming that they purchased diamonds from foreign traders.

Using these bills, it is alleged the duo used to transfer money through their bank acccounts. The money allegedly went outside India though no diamonds were imported.