Kolkata, Feb 10 (IANS): A day after recovering Rs 1 crore unaccounted cash from a vehicle, the Kolkata police suspects that a major inter-state hawala link is operating from the city.

A joint team of Anti-Rowdy Squad (ARS) and special task force (STF) of the city police recovered this unaccounted cash from the boot of a vehicle on Thursday evening.

After detaining and questioning the driver Dulal Roy and the passenger Mukesh Saraswat, the police have identified the owner of the vehicle, Nishith Roy, a businessman by profession.

Interrogation of Dulal Roy and Mukesh Saraswat revealed that the cash was given to them by Nishith Roy, a businessman by profession, for handover to the representatives of another businessman operating out of the city's trading hub of Burrabazar in central Kolkata.

The police are integrating Nishith Roy in the matter to identify the other businessman and to zero in on the source of the recovered cash.

"We strongly suspect that the huge cash recovered from the vehicle was not simple proceeds of any legal business. Rather, we suspect that there is a major inter-state hawala link involved in the matter. Mukesh Sarwat, the passenger of the vehicle, though has residence in Kolkata, originally hails from Rajasthan. Further investigation is on to identify whether others are involved in this racket," a state police official said.

The police have decided to question Nishith Roy, Mukesh Saraswat and Dulal Roy by placing them face-to-face for clarity in the matter.

Recovery of huge unaccounted cash has been a regular affair in Kolkata.

On Wednesday evening, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials recovered Rs 1.40 crore from the office of a Kolkata- based business.

The ED has claimed that this amount is a part of the proceeds of the multi-crore coal smuggling scam.