Country’s premier terror cases probe agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is going to set up a dedicated anti-money laundering unit to strengthen the probes on terror financing including money flow to Naxal outfits. The Home Ministry recently gave its approval for setting up the dedicated wing in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for the task.
The move came following the NIA’s extensive terror-funding probe against Kashmiri separatists, during which the central probe agency arrested several leaders of the Hurriyat and their kin, including the son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Sayed Salahuddin and the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
“A dedicated wing of the NIA is coming up to take up the terror funding and money laundering cases of the Naxals. The Home Ministry has given the necessary approval for it,” a Home Ministry official told PTI, citing the money flow to relatives of leaders of terror outfits and ultras. The official added that the agency has noted the huge flow of money dispatched to the siblings of Naxals. The NIA will go after the Naxal leaders and their sympathisers who are involved in all such cases, the official said.
In February, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached properties worth Rs 86 lakh of a Jharkhand-based Maoist commander, Sandeep Yadav. It also attached assets worth Rs 68 lakh of two senior Maoist leaders — Bihar-based brothers Pradumn Sharma and Pramod Sharma — in connection with a money-laundering probe against them.
Pradumn has several aliases such as Kundan Ji, lulha, Saket, Anish Ji and is in charge of the Magadh zone special area committee of Bihar-Jharkhand of Naxalites. Pramod, having aliases such as Prabhakar Ji and Pramod Singh, is the secretary of Banawar sub-area zonal committee of the CPI (Maoist).
The investigation has found that proceeds of crime have been utilised by Pradumn and Pramod to make huge expenses towards the admission of Pramod’s daughter in a medical college and coaching of their son and daughter at coaching institutes in Kota and Patna, said an NIA officer.
The Maoists are known for often blowing up schools or hampering spread of educational institutions in its area of influence but for the education of their children, they are spending in lakhs of rupees, the official said. There have been allegations against several contractors who are collecting levy and laundering it on behalf of Naxal leaders in Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. All these cases may be taken over by the NIA and probed as terror funding and money laundering, the official said.
