KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kochi, has approached the Delhi Police for information about hawala agents suspected to have paid the middleman for helping T T V Dinakaran secure the AIADMK’s party symbol from the Election Commission.
Reports claimed Dinkaran paid Rs 10 crore to the middleman through Kochi-based hawala agents. It was also promised Rs 40 crore will be handed over in Kochi later.
“After the Delhi police registered cases against Dinakaran and the middleman, we communicated with them for information about the hawala agents. We have been checking the operation of hawala rackets in Kerala. The Delhi Police have not sought our assistance to track down the Kerala-based agents till now,” said an ED officer.
The ED had established links between hawala agents in Kochi and those abroad while probing the nursing recruitment scam. “Several hawala rackets operating from Kochi provide money to businessmen in other states. However, they thrive on money exchanged with operators abroad.
We can act further in this regard only after getting information about the agents from the Delhi Police,” said the officer. ED officers also suspect the recent raids conducted by the Kochi unit of the Income Tax (I-T) on the branches of a chit fund company might be connected to the Dinakaran case.
However, the I-T Department has not revealed any details of the raids with the ED. Officers with the I-T, Kochi, were tight-lipped about the raids when Express contacted them.
“We have no role in the investigation into the Dinakaran case. The raids were supervised by officers in Chennai. We were asked to check certain registers and documents. We cannot reveal the purpose behind it,” said I-T officers.