Hawala money funded recruitment operations of MK Gassali in Kerala

Hawala money funded recruitment operations of MK Gassali in Kerala

Money extensively used to set up offices, provide salary to staff for carrying out illegal recruitment

KOCHI: Money that came in through hawala channels funded the operations of human trafficking racket allegedly run by Kannur native MK Gassali, alias Majeed. Cops suspect the hawala fund, generated from supplying women as bonded labourers to Arab families in Kuwait, was extensively used by Gassali and his local aides to set up offices in Kochi, buy air tickets, process visit visas and provide salary to staff for carrying out the illegal recruitment of women from Kerala to the Gulf country.

The state special branch (SSB), which dug out all crucial details about the activities of Gassali, asserts that the fund to run the entire network of recruitment came from the huge money which he used to get from Arab families in Kuwait for supplying women as bonded labourers. “It’s obvious that Gassali used to get a huge amount of money per woman supplied to Kuwait. There is no other source of revenue as the recruitment process for the applicants is totally free. Even the money for air tickets is not collected from the recruited women. So, the money which Gassali received in Kuwait was routed through hawala channels to finance their recruitment process in Kerala,” said a senior intelligence officer.

Agencies like National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) have already started verifying the accounts of the suspects. “A person identified as Sameer of Kozhikode used to provide the air tickets and the visit visas to the women at a hotel in Nedumbassery before boarding the flights. We have zeroed in on Sameer and he has given a statement that his task was just to book flight tickets and process visiting visas for the women whose list with details was forwarded by Gassali. We are verifying his statement and collecting more details on the fund flow,” said the officer.

Gassali and his local aide Ajumon A R had first set up their office at Chalikkavattom in Kochi and later it was shifted to Ravipuram.“There was a couple of staff at the office and huge money was spent on office interiors and other facilities. We are verifying the source of money for this,” said an officer.

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