The Income Tax department has unearthed a hawala racket of over 1,000 crore rupees, in which about a dozen shell companies from Vishakhapatnam and few other cities indulged in illegal foreign exchange dealings. <br/><br/><br/>Officials said, the sleuths of the department conducted raids at few premises of a firm and its owners in Vishakhapatnam, Srikakulum and Kolkata who were found to have moved funds worth crores to Hong Kong, China and Singapore allegedly in the name of import of customised software. <br/><br/><br/>The department, post its preliminary probe, has detected instances of hawala dealing, using banking channels to route illegal money, deploying shell or fake firms to conduct the transaction and money laundering in the last two years time by the firm. The officials refused to identify the firm and its owners as the probe is ongoing.<br/><br/>Quoting a senior official, news agency PTI reports that the tax department will soon share the findings with the Enforcement Directorate and the Customs department for probe at their end. <br/><br/>The department said, it has also filed an FIR against the accused on charges of forgery and cheating.<br/>