Pune: 9 Persons Arrested In Connection With Gutkha, Money Laundering Case, Rs 3.7 Crore Cash Recovered
Mehab Qureshi
Pune, December 4, 2020: The Pune City Crime branch conducted several raids on Wednesday and arrested nine money laundering (Hawala) operators in connection with the case. Police have seized Rs 3.7 Crore cash, gutkha, paan masala and other materials.
Acting on a tip-off received by Police Inspector Rajnish Nirmal of Crime Branch Unit 4, a raid was conducted at a shop in Kharadi on November 16. Police had arrested Suresh Moolchand Agarwal (54) and seized narcotic substances (gutkha, paan masala etc) worth four lakh. Later his accomplice Navnath Kalbhor was also caught.
The initial probe had revealed that the money laundering circle was operating from a building in the Budhwar Peth area and Rs 50 lakh was recovered from the building.
Upon questioning Agarwal, he gave out Kalbhor’s name as his primary buyer. It has also come to light that these two distributors were laundering money to other sellers as well.
On December 2, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Priyanka Narnaware, Police Inspector Rajnish Nirmal of Crime Branch Unit 4 and Assistant Police inspector Abhijit Chougule and their teams raided at five places simultaneously.
Till now police have recovered Rs 3.7 Crore cash and narcotics substances and arrested nine persons in the case.
This action was taken under the guidance of Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta, Joint Commissioner Ravindra Shisve, Additional Commissioner Ashok Morale (Crime), DCP Bachchan Singh.
Further investigation is being done by Assistant Police Inspector Sandeep Jamdade.
