Chinese national arrested for Rs 1,000 crore Hawala racket, spying on Dalai Lama
A 42-year-old Chinese national, who was arrested earlier this week by the Income Tax Department in connection with a Hawala racket operating in Delhi and NCR, had also bribed some Buddhist monks to collect information on the Dalai Lama. The accused had given cash of Rs 2 to 3 lakhs to some individuals living in Delhi’s Majnu ka Tila, a Tibetan refugee colony in Delhi.
The entire communication in this regard was done on WeChat, one of the 106 Chinese apps which were banned by India recently. The bribe money for Tibetan monks was sent through men working at the office of Luo Sang. Many of these transactions were routed through Hong Kong.
The Income Tax departments also tracked down a Delhi-based Chartered Accountant who was helping the accused in hawala transactions. This CA was running more than 40 bank accounts through which transactions worth more than Rs 300 crore for Chinese Companies have been tracked down.
Luo Sang, who was operating under the fake name Charlie Peng, was arrested on August 11 during a raid in Delhi by the Income Tax Department.
Investigation has revealed that Luo Sang had illegally entered India from Nepal in 2014. He then married a woman from Mizoram and took up Indian identity with a fake passport, which was issued from Manipur. He also got an Aadhaar card and PAN card made in that name.
The accounts, spread across several banks, have been attached by the Income Tax Department. The department suspects that bank employees were involved in some capacity and many of them are under scanner. Department sources also said that bigger Chinese companies were issuing fake purchase orders for smaller Chinese firms and bogus bills were raised by them. The IT department has said Peng and other Chinese nationals opened bank accounts in the name of Chinese shell companies and laundered over ₹ 1,000 crore.
The I-T Department is in touch with GST Department to check if fake sales were booked by Chinese companies as well.
