HYDERABAD: As China battles baldness, a Hyderabad-Mizoram-Myanmar "front" has been offering illicit ammo. An ongoing ED probe has thrown up a Rs 11,793-crore human hair smuggling racket spanning a complex money trail and alleged money laundering through the three-point-corridor.
Details have emerged on how such slush money is routed back to Hyderabad from traders in Myanmar. The cash is deposited and routed through multiple accounts. Of the total sum of Rs 11,793 crore, around Rs 2,491 crore in cash (over 21%) was deposited in such accounts.
ED had in Feb 2022 conducted searches across the country and unearthed the hair-export racket through Myanmar. After TOI exposed the modus operandi, ED plunged into action, registering cases in 2021 against the Hyderabad-based Nayla Family Exports Private Ltd for allegedly using benami import export codes (IEC), impersonation and forgery.
Hair was smuggled to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam and China from Hyderabad airport and through land routes via Mizoram.
Nayla allegedly created multiple shell (benami) entities to export hair at grossly undervalued rates. Documents available with TOI revealed that these entities are disbanded whenever they get into trouble with tax authorities and new IECs are devised. The payments, estimated at Rs 8,000 crore per annum, are received via hawala channels.
Investigations by TOI, corroborated by ED, have found that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh-based traders were selling hair to shell entities in the Northeast and Kolkata, from where the consignments were sent onward via land, first to Myanmar and then to China. The entities received payments through "mule" bank accounts, or hawala networks or through Chinese apps like Dokypay and Linkyun.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword. Sudhakar Reddy Udumula is the Editor (Investigation) at the Times...
Read MoreSudhakar Reddy Udumula is the Editor (Investigation) at the Times of India, Hyderabad. Following the trail of migration and drought across the rustic landscape of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Sudhakar reported extensively on government apathy, divisive politics, systemic gender discrimination, agrarian crisis and the will to survive great odds. His curiosity for peeking behind the curtain triumphed over the criminal agenda of many scamsters in the highest political and corporate circles, making way for breaking stories such as Panama Papers Scam, Telgi Stamp Paper Scam, and many others. His versatility in reporting extended to red corridors of left-wing extremism where the lives of security forces and the locals in Maoist-affected areas were key points of investigation. His knack for detail provided crucial evidence of involvement from overseas in terrorist bombings in Hyderabad.
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