Rajesh Kalra, who owned a major portion of the looted cash in Lajpat Nagar heist, was in constant touch with hawala dealers in Dubai and cricket bookies in Mumbai and London, investigators today claimed and are now trying to trace the money trail.
Kalra was chargesheeted by Delhi Police's crime branch for his alleged involvement in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing case and police said while trying to track the robbers, they were also probing possible betting racket related to the ongoing India-New Zealand cricket series.
Delhi Police was likely to contact their Mumbai counterparts to trace possible hawala trail of over Rs 8 crore which was looted on Tuesday, investigators said.
Kalra's call record details have revealed that he was constantly in touch with cricket bookies and hawala dealers in Dubai. Just a day before the robbery, Kalra had spoken to a person on a Dubai number for more than 20 minutes, they said.
It has also been found that the businessman had close ties with actor Vindoo Dara Singh, who is facing charges in the IPL spot-fixing case.
Kalra's phone records further suggested that he was in constant touch with bookies in Jaipur, Mumbai and London, police said. They said the money looted had possibly come through hawala trail to Delhi.
Police believe that whether it is a cricket betting racket, a hawala or money laundering syndicate or all rolled into one, the money must have been channelised through Mumbai while the strings were controlled from Dubai.
Meanwhile, senior officials of the South-East district police today questioned several people, including employees of Kalra, his manager and businessman Rakesh Kumar at Special Staff Office at Madangir.
One Subodh, who was driving the Honda City car which was stolen along with the cash during the robbery has come under police scanner after it has emerged that the car, which used to transport cash almost on a routine basis, took a different route that day.
Investigators said as Subodh took a different route, an I-20 car, which was escorting him with a gunman, was stuck somewhere else.
"We also questioned Kalra's business partner Rahul Ahuja, but there is still no breakthrough in the case," said a senior police officer.
Police suspect that among Kalra's contacts were Chandresh Jain alias Jupiter, a Jaipur-based bookie and jeweller who was arrested over the IPL spot-fixing scandal, and London-based bookie Sanjeev Chawla, whose name had cropped up as the main fixer in the 2000 Hansie Cronje match fixing case.
