J&K hawala dealer remanded in police custody for 10 days

A close associate of hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani arrested in connection with an alleged Hawala racket was today remanded in the custody of Delhi police for 10 days.

Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, against whom five cases including running a hawala racket are already under investigation, was arrested last week from a hospital, where he was allegedly feigning illness, police sources said.

He was nabbed by a Delhi police team, camping in Srinagar, and was produced here before a duty magistrate, who remanded him in police custody for 10 days.

Rs 21 lakh was recovered from Bhat's possession at the time of his arrest from his Hyderpora residence on January 22. He was injured in a scuffle between police and his family who tried to resist his arrest and was admitted at SKIMS Hospital in Soura.

Bhat was arrested in 2008 in Udhampur district while returning to the Valley with Rs 55 lakh alleged Hawala money concealed in a gas cylinder.

Two other persons - one from Kupwara and another from Sopore in north Kashmir - were also arrested in this case, the sources said adding, more arrests were likely after his detailed interrogation.