Submit cross-LoC traders’ details: I-T Dept to J&K Police

SRINAGAR: The central Income-Tax department has written to the Jammu and Kashmir Police asking it to submit details of suspected cross-LoC (Line of Control) traders, who have allegedly made surplus money through the trade route, to augment an ongoing investigation.
The cross-LoC trade is also under the scanner of the National Investigation Agency, which is probing alleged hawala transactions and drug cartels that were allegedly being run in the garb of the trade.

The I-T department also sent a 10-page list of cross-LoC traders to the J&K Police in January stating that details of these traders must be submitted immediately. “In order to take the investigation to its logical conclusion any information or relevant documents regarding these persons may be provided immediately,” said the order, issued on January 15, a copy of which has been seen by ET.


Following the order, J&K Police wrote to the industries department in Kashmir, asking it to submit details and documents of all cross-LoC traders from 2008, when the trade was started, till April 19, 2019, when the trade was stopped following heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. “Any other associated and relevant information or documents which would aid investigations should also be furnished,” the police said in its communication on February 1.

The cross-LoC trade managed to survive the tensions between the two countries for more than a decade but last year not only the cross-LoC trade but also the border trade was impacted massively.