MUMBAI, December 12: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed to have busted a multi-crore hawala racket operating on Mumbai-London sector with the recovery of incriminating documents seized from premises of a businessman.

In earlier cases, hawala rackets had been confined to Mumbai-Dubai route but in this case money was distributed to beneficiaries in India on instructions from two persons in London. During raids conducted yesterday on the premises of one Pravin Popatlal Shah alias Praveenbhai at Girgaon, officials seized documents in the form of fax messages from London for distribution of money in India.

The operations were conducted by Praveenbhai on instructions from UK citizens, Chimanlal Vishram Patel and Jayantibhai Vishram Patel. The fax messages received from them give complete details of the beneficiaries who are mostly from Baroda, Surat and Navsari in Gujarat and Mumbai and Goa. Documents recovered pertain to transactions of Rs 12.5 crore in a single month, and major amounts for distribution were funded by one Dilipbhai alias Dayabhai alias Dimple, who provided Rs six crore. Two more major financiers, namely, Valjee (code name `V') based in Bhuj and Sulaiman (code name `S') also appear in the documents and in many cases money was distributed through Angadias (Courier).

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