Surat: Bharuch special operation group (SOG) have busted an illegal foreign currency exchange racket and arrested two persons. The SOG have seized different countries’ currency worth Rs 56 lakh after raiding two places, in Bharuch and Palej, on Tuesday. In the first case, the police raided a money exchange shop, ‘Bharuch Forex’ in Valika Shopping Centre in Bharuch, from where they caught Mohammad Talha Ibrahim Patel involved in illegal exchange without license. Here, the police seized Indian and other countries’ currency worth Rs 38.43 lakh from this shop. Police also seized original documents including eight Aadhaar card, four election card and two driving licenses. In second case, the police raided Express Money Transfer shop in High Cross complex in Palej town. The police caught Mohammad Arif Yunus Patel from here as he did not have any valid license for money or foreign currency exchange. Police seized different countries’ currency worth Rs 17.79 lakh. The seized currency included 7,400 notes of 500 denomination (Rs 37 lakh), 229 notes of South African rands (Rs 1.48 lakh), 69 notes of US dollar (Rs 3.76 lakh), 12 notes of Canadian dollar (Rs 14,832), 438 notes of British Pound (Rs 13.6 lakh), and 30 notes of Saudi Riyal (Rs 6,622). Bharuch SOG police inspector Anand Chaudhari told TOI: “Accused have failed to give any satisfactory answer over cash and foreign currency. We have arrested both the accused under section 41(1)D of CrPC. Talha held a money exchange license, but not foreign currency exchange license. On the other hand, Arif did not have any license and was also doing currency exchange business from his home also.” It is also being investigated from where they sent, or collected the foreign currency. “As we have seized 14 original documents of different people, we will call everyone and take statements as to why they had given their original documents to accused and also inform the Income-Tax department about it. We also in two minds is these are part of hawala racket,” he said.
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