2G scam was moved from Chennai to Surat

The bribe money that changed hands in the 2G scam was moved from Chennai to Surat in Gujarat and then to Dubai before being parked in countries known as ‘safe havens’, says the Enforcement Directorate. The Ahmedabad zonal unit of the agency has made a major breakthrough in establishing the connection of 2G scam kickback money with the hawala racket.

The ED zonal unit has been investigating the hawala racket since 2014. It has already arrested key operators from Surat and Mumbai and filed charge sheet in the case. During investigation of Afroz Hassanfatta hawala racket, it tracked the role of Dubai-based Manish Shah and his company Mabrook Trading. It was while decoding data on Shah’s laptop that ED came across the money trail from Chennai to Surat and Dubai.

According to sources, this money was transferred by Chennai-based JG group. The group is officially owned and run by Jain brothers — Rajesh, Daulat and Mahesh. Rajesh is based in Dubai and has a business of commodities. Rajesh would transfer it to countries like Mauritius, Cyprus and Switzerland. ED is now tracking the money movement from Dubai. ED sources said the agency strongly suspects that this money came from A Raja, former telecom minister accused in 2G scam. In the past CBI has raided Jains’ offices in Delhi. But none of them has ever been charged in the case.

More from ED’s mouth – Nearly Rs10,000 crore was transferred out of India by Prithviraj Kothari and Rajesh Jain. ED has strong evidence to prove their connection Kothari, a major bullion player, has established businesses in SEZ Surat which he uses to run the hawala racket.

Kothari, Jain and Mansukh Sanghvi control Dubai and Hong Kong-based companies involved in the racket. Kothari controlled overseas business through his nephew Raju Kothari . His Indian operations were handled by Rakesh Kothari, already arrested in Afroz Fatta hawala case and currently out on bail. The money was transferred by Surat-bvased Afroz HassanFatta to Dubai-based Mabrook trading It was later transferred to countries like Switzerland, Mauritius, Cyprus and others. The money  trail According to ED sources, the kickback money was sent to Dubai and then to countries considered parking havens. Later the same money would be re-routed to India and invested in real estate and hotel business. CBI had raided Jains’ Delhi office in 2010 as part of investigation into the money trail

RAW report in 2012 – RAW had sent a confidential report to CBI and ED in 2012 highlighting the link between A Raja and the Jain brothers. The report mentioned the alleged hawala links of the former telecom minister.  Raja’s lawyer had then told mediapersons that the agencies had never questioned his client on the basis of the RAW report.

Jains’ Dubai companies:

Euro Eagle General Trading FZC , Global Trade Commodities DMCC , King Power Industrial limited