Jan.31, 2010, 23:36 IST

The Italian police have issued a red corner notice through Interpol against Naresh Kumar Jain, who is accused of running a hawala (money laundering) racket. At present, he is in judicial custody in New Delhi. The RCN has created the possibility of Jain being extradited to Italy once the investigation against him is completed in India.

Jain, who is seen as a key link between global drug traffickers and terrorist organisations such as the Taliban and al Qaeda, faces a number of cases in Italy.

For now, he is being investigated here by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). “We have received the red corner notice and it is being examined,” a senior ED official told DNA.

Jain was reported to be in touch with Albanian heroin traffickers in Italy. Intelligence agencies believe the hawala accused kept contact with one Parwez, a Pakistani national staying in Italy, and Qazmi, who is a co-accused with him in a narcotics case in Italy.

Italian investigators have estimated that Jain was laundering nearly $4 million daily. The racket was being run through a beauty parlour in Italy, which was the nodal office for all his drug and terror money dealings in Italy. In 2006, they unearthed Jain’s activities during a covert anti-narcotics operation called Operation Khyber Pass.

Trails led the authorities to Jain’s hawala business in Dubai and that is where they found proof of how drug money was being moved by Jain, using hawala. Police found that the beauty parlour was being used to route money from Jain’s bank accounts in Dubai to drug traffickers across the globe.

Jain was arrested by NCB on December 6 last year, under pressure from US and UK drug enforcement agencies, who believe he is the key link in a big drug and terror network.

A few days back, the ED had again taken remand of Jain to ask him where he diverted money from the pulse export scam. His brother Shyam is an accused in the scam. Apart from ED, the CBI and the directorate of revenue intelligence are also investigating the case.

Indian investigators have very little evidence against Jain. The only credible case against him is under the passport act, for entering India through the Nepal border. That leaves Indian agencies heavily dependent on information and evidence from foreign countries where he is facing several cases.