NIA arrests 5 hawala operatives from Kerala, Karnataka in Bihar’s Phulwarisharif PFI case | Mangaluru News – Times of India

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MANGALURU: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested five hawala operatives — four from Dakshina Kannada and one from Kasaragod in Kerala — in connection with Bihar’s Phulwarisharif PFI case.
The arrested men are Mahammad Sinan, from Panemangalore, Sarfraz Nawaz, from Sajipamuda, Iqbal, Panemangalore, Abdul Rafeek M, from Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district and Abid K M from Kunjuthur in Kerala’s Kasaragod.
The NIA investigations into the Phulwarisharif PFI case of Bihar have led to the unearthing of a large network of hawala operatives in South India and their arrest from Karnataka.
A PFI funding-by-hawala module operating out of Bihar and Karnataka with roots in the UAE has been busted with the arrests of five PFI operatives, stated a release.
The NIA stated that PFI cadres in Phulwarisharif and Motihari had vowed to continue PFI activities in a clandestine manner in Bihar and had also arranged a firearm and ammunition recently to eliminate a youth of a particular community in Bihar’s East Champaran district. Three operatives of the module were arrested on February 5.
The five accused arrested on Tuesday have been found to be actively involved in PFI’s criminal conspiracy to move and channelise illicit funds procured from outside India for distribution among PFI leaders and cadres.
Earlier in this case, seven accused persons were arrested when they had gathered in Phulwarisharif area of Patna in July last year for training and to carry out acts of terror and violence.
NIA teams have been carrying out extensive searches in Kasaragod and Dakshina Kannada districts since Sunday.
Searches were conducted at eight locations leading to the seizure of multiple digital devices and incriminating documents containing details of transactions running into several crore rupees.
Pursuing the investigational leads since July 2022, the NIA team found that despite the ban on PFI imposed on September 27, the PFI and its leaders/cadres continued to propagate the ideology of violent extremism and were also arranging arms and ammunition to commit crimes.
‘Following the money’, NIA investigators reached Sarfraz Nawaz and Mahammad Sinan, who had been found making deposits in the bank accounts of the accused and suspects in the PFI case.
Dogged in pursuit of the money trail and connecting the dots, NIA managed to unravel the international conspiracy and linkages to the funds while investigating Iqbal and other associates who had collected illegally generated funds from Dubai and Abu Dhabi and handed them over to Mahammad Sinan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Rafeek M and Abid K M in India.
Investigations revealed that Sarfaraz, Sinan and Rafeek deposited the money in different bank accounts of the accused and the suspects.
The five accused will be produced before NIA Special Court in Patna shortly. Further investigations are on to track, trace and choke international as well domestic illicit funding channels of the banned PFI, stated the NIA.

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