NEWS

An FIR has been registered against three Mumbai Police officials last week for allegedly threatening Angadias and extorting money from them in south Mumbai

WHAT IS ANGADIA SYSTEM?

• Century-old parallel banking system in the country
• Traders send cash generally from one state to another through a person called Angadia that stands for courier
• Used in the jewellery business with Mumbai – Surat being the most popular route as they are two ends of the diamond trade
• Cash involved is huge and it is the responsibility of the Angadia to transfer cash from one state to another for which they charge a nominal fee
• Generally, it is the Gujarati, Marwari and Malbari community that are involved in the business

IS THE SYSTEM LEGAL?

• System per se is legal
• Activity as it is suspected that a lot of times it is used to transfer unaccounted money
• Been suspicions that it is also used for transfer of black money like the hawala transaction which is generally used across countries.
• Large quantities of cash makes them susceptible as targets of robbery