August 12, 2020: The Income Tax Department on Tuesday busted a big nexus of Chinese companies using the hawala network in India. Following inputs from the intelligence agencies, the I-T Department carried out searches at 21 locations in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Gurugram and apprehended the man.

The Chinese individual detained by the Income Tax Department has been identified as Luo Sang.

It may be stated that he had earlier been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in September 2018, under charges of espionage.

Official sources said the accused had assumed identity as “Charlie Peng”. He was holding a fake Indian passport and Aadhaar.

On investigation, it was found that he had got this passport issued from Manipur.

Further, it has also come to light that this 'Charlie Peng' had married a Manipuri girl earlier to make the process of his acquiring an Indian passport, easier.

According to sources, the Delhi Police had alleged that 'Charlie Peng' was spying for China and also running money laundering and hawala transaction businesses.

In a well-orchestrated modus operandi, he was using 8 to 10 bank accounts under fictitious names in India. The accused kept on changing his addresses at regular intervals and managed to evade arrest. Earlier he was staying in Dwarka and his current address was in DLF.

So far, the agencies have uncovered a hawala operation of more than Rs 300 crore but officials privy to probe said the final figure can go into thousands of crores. It is suspected that the scam is worth over Rs 1,000 crore using a subsidiary of a Chinese company.

In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said, "Search action has revealed that at the behest of the Chinese individuals, more than 40 bank accounts were created in various dummy entities, entering into credits of more than Rs 1000 crores over time. A subsidiary of Chinese company and its related concerns have taken over Rs 100 crores bogus advances from shell entities for opening businesses of retail showrooms in India. Further, incriminating documents in respect of hawala transactions and laundering of money with the active involvement of bank employees and chartered accountants have been found as a result of search action. Pieces of evidence of foreign hawala transactions involving Hong Kong and US dollars have also been found."