'Hawala' scam takes new turn

he row over a private television channel's report that Tourism Minister K.V. Thomas was involved in the recent Rs 33.6 million hawala scandal has taken a new turn with local police sources disclosing yesterday that their investigations have yielded evidence of Sobhana George's role in the case.

According to the sources, the incident is a fallout of the long simmering group war in the Congress-I. Though Sobhana, MLA, and Thomas belonged to the 'I' group led by veteran party leader K. Karunakaran till recently, the minister is of late reported to have shifted his loyalty of the 'A'‚ group led by Chief Minister A.K. Antony.

The sources said Sobhana's role became evident following interrogation of several people, including Anil Nambiyar of Surya Television which telecast the report displaying a document purported to be a police record linking Thomas with the hawala racket.

Sources close to Sobhana said that she had no involvement in the case and the police claim that she played a role in it was fabricated and politically motivated.

Soon after the television report accompanied by the 'police record' sparked the controversy, the government and the police charged that the document said to be a letter written by Director General of Police (Intelligence) was a fake one.

The chief minister also ordered an inquiry in this regard as the issue rocked the State Assembly with the opposition demanding the resignation of the minister.

The row won more media attention as a criminal case was filed against Surya and its offices were raided. Subsequently, the police were making moves to arrest Anil Nambiar. The hunt for Nambiar ended on Monday with his surrender before the Crime Branch.

From the beginning, the supporters of the 'I' group have been raising the suspicion that the rival faction was behind tarnishing the image of Thomas.

The massive hawala deal came to light with reports quoting Central Intelligence agencies that a sum of Rs 33.6 billion was transferred from Mumbai to Kerala through branches of four banks in the State allegedly for anti-national activities. Investi-gations by the central agencies are still on.