Mumbai : The government may have committed to bring back unaccounted money stashed abroad, but around Rs 50,000 crore would be transferred purely through the hawala route within India and abroad during the forthcoming World Cup cricket tournament that would witness massive betting.
The bookies have activated their hawala network within and outside the country to settle the bets to be placed during the matches.
The money either to the punters (who puts money) or bookies will be transferred either through local angadias (traditional couriers) or through accounts in foreign banks in Dubai, Pakistan and other Saudi nations. A bookie will take money if the punter, placing a bet through him, loses his bet. Similarly, the bookie will have to pay money to the punter if the latter wins the bet. Since the betting business is illegal in India, the entire transaction would be done through hawala, which is the illegal way to transfer money, after every match.
Explaining the process of hawala within the country, a bookie said that if the money is to be transferred in any other city or state, it would be done through a hawala dealer or an angadia who is into such activities. “If a Mumbai bookie wants to transfer the money to his punter in Delhi, he will give the same to the local angadia or hawala dealer. The punter will collect the money from the angadia’s Delhi branch or the hawala operator’s man there,” the bookie said.
He added in this method, there is no need to travel with the cash from one city or state to the other and only the hawala operators and angadias are paid the commission.
About the international money transfer, he said it will be done either through a hawala operator or an international bank. “If the money is to be delivered in Dubai, it will be paid to the hawala operator here and his man in Dubai would hand over the same amount to the recipient there,” the bookie said.
The punter in the foreign nation would either directly collect the cash from the hawala operator’s aide there or the latter would transfer the money from his account to the punter’s account. “The account has to be in a foreign bank where there is no chance of an inquiry, as the amount involved will be big,” the bookie said. Here too, the hawala operator is paid a commission.
