Patna, July 4 (IANS) The Patna police busted a hawala racket Friday after arresting three people, police said.

A police team arrested three people near Gandhi Maidan here and recovered Rs.16 lakh in cash and 36 ATM cards from their possession, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said.

"We have been interrogating the three arrested hawala agents and hope to expose a bigger nexus spread across the country and abroad," he said.

Maharaj said: "Police will try to trace their outside links and the kingpin behind it."