A late-night raid in Noida’s Sector 93 has led Uttar Pradesh’s Special Task Force to what investigators describe as an elaborate hawala and money laundering network, allegedly run by a Chinese national who had been living in India illegally for years under a forged Indian identity.
The STF arrested three men, Chinese national Liao Longhui, Ghaziabad resident Sanjeev Kumar and Kaushalendra from Auraiya district, from Purvanchal Silver City in Sector 93. Investigators allege the network relied on shell companies, forged documents and cross-border trade manipulation to move money out of India through informal hawala channels, a pattern that Noida’s STF unit has now encountered in a string of Chinese-linked cases stretching back several years.
A Forged Identity, an Overstayed Visa
At the centre of the case is Liao Longhui, whose Indian visa expired in 2020 despite having entered the country in 2018, according to the STF. During the search, officers say they recovered a forged Aadhaar card carrying his photograph but registered under the name “Samuel Lotha,” with an address traced to Kohima in Nagaland, apparently intended to let him operate under a fabricated Indian identity while his actual immigration status lapsed.
Investigators allege Longhui, along with relatives identified as his father-in-law and brother-in-law, ran YTL Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd., a mobile phone cover manufacturing unit registered in Noida’s Sector 83. Suspicion reportedly grew after Longhui failed to produce valid immigration or identity documents during a routine verification, a gap that ultimately unravelled the wider network.
Shell Companies and a Chartered Accountant
The STF alleges that Sanjeev Kumar, a chartered accountant by profession, played a central role in the operation, setting up shell companies, opening bank accounts and preparing the documentation needed to move money through the network. At least seven companies were found registered at the same Sector 83 address, a clustering investigators say points toward entities created primarily to route funds rather than conduct genuine business.
The trail allegedly extends overseas as well, with investigators examining links to Hong Kong-registered entities, including HK Hanko Communication Trading Company and HK Inchio Limited, believed to have facilitated the cross-border movement of funds. According to the STF, the accused allegedly manipulated the declared value of raw materials imported from China while selling finished goods through Delhi markets such as Karol Bagh and Nehru Place, using under-invoicing to generate unaccounted funds that were then pushed abroad through hawala channels.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Noida
This is far from an isolated episode for Uttar Pradesh’s STF. Noida and Greater Noida have emerged as a recurring hub for hawala networks involving Chinese nationals over the past several years, including a case that saw 21 people, eleven of them Chinese nationals, arrested and roughly fifty additional Chinese nationals detained for visa violations after a similar racket came to light. A related Enforcement Directorate case some years earlier involved an alleged ₹1,000 crore hawala ring linked to a Chinese national accused of operating under a fake Indian identity while gathering intelligence on Tibetan exiles, a reminder that such networks in the region have sometimes carried implications well beyond financial crime.
The searches in the current case yielded a substantial haul: five laptops, nine mobile phones, a tablet, ten company seals, eleven cheque books, two Chinese passports, a forged Aadhaar and PAN card, company incorporation records, and cash and cheques together valued at around ₹4.72 crore. Investigators are now conducting forensic analysis of the seized devices to trace additional associates and financial links.
The probe has also surfaced the alleged involvement of Ravi Kumar Dhakkar, described as a 2019 shareholder in YTL Manufacturing who allegedly used forged documents to secure the company’s PAN and GST registration; he is currently in judicial custody in an unrelated case. With an FIR registered at Noida’s Phase-2 police station, authorities expect the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department and other central agencies to widen the investigation into the network’s full financial and international dimensions.
