Varanasi: Five women, including the mother and wife of the fugitive codeine cough syrup syndicate kingpin Shubham Jaiswal’s jailed hawala trade manager were arrested by Kotwali police on Tuesday. However, they were released by a judicial magistrate, who refused to send them to jail due to insufficient evidence.ACP (Kotwali) Vijay Pratap Singh said those arrested were identified as jailed hawala trader Vaibhav Jaiswal’s mother Radhika and wife Shivangi of Navapura, Usha Devi of Bhardwaji Tola, Rekha Devi and Babita Singh of Kayasth Tola were arrested and produced before the court.The investigation revealed that these women were involved in a money laundering scheme with fugitive Shubham and his jailed father, Bhola Prasad. They allegedly used the liquor business to launder black money earned from cough syrup sales. Bhola had obtained liquor shops in the women’s names through the lottery system, and Vaibhav would transfer income from these shops to Shubham via hawala.Investigators from Kotwali police station and SIT probed several bank statements and documents, uncovering Shubham’s involvement in the liquor trade.They found he had a stake in six English liquor shops through an association of persons and had formed a syndicate with individuals from various trades.
