KOCHI:The Enforcement Directorate(ED) investigating the money laundering case against Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultancy, which allegedly collected around Rs 234 crore from nurses recruited for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, found that two employees of a forex trading firm collected Rs 85 crore from the office of the recruitment agency in Kochi.
Uthup Varghese, proprietor of Al Zarafa, had sought the help of Suresh Babu, proprietor of Suresh Forex, to hide the documents when the Income Tax Department conducted raid at the office and residence of Uthup on March 27.
According to ED officials, Suresh Babu was a close ally of Uthup. The money was collected by Suresh Babu’s employees Sreejith and Siju from the Kochi office of Al Zarafa. “Sreejith collected Rs 63 crore from the office between January 2014 and March 2015, while Siju collected Rs 22 crore during that period.