The enforcement directorate (ED) has attached a Srinagar-based property linked to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in connection with a 14-year-old militancy funding and money-laundering case against him and others, the agency said Friday.
The property is located in Effandi Bagh area in Rawalpora,Srinagar, and the central probe agency issued a provisional order to attach theasset under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The action is part of a multi-agency crackdown launched bythe government against separatists and alleged militancy operatives functioningfrom Kashmir Valley.
The ED said the asset is being “held in the name” of Shah’swife and daughters.
The seized asset is valued at Rs 25.8 lakh, the agency said.
It added that Shah, currently in judicial custody, is”involved in carrying out illicit activities along with his accomplice MohammadAslam Wani, who is an activist of banned militant organisation JeM(Jaish-e-Mohammad)”.
“Shah was using Wani as a carrier for collecting hawalamoney sent by his Pakistan-based sympathisers through hawala operators…,” theagency alleged.
Records show, the ED said, that this property has beengifted to Shah’s wife and daughters by his sisters-in-law in 2005, which waspurchased in their name by his father-in-law in 1999.
However, in spite of repeated opportunities given to Shah’sfather-in-law and sisters-in-law they failed to justify the sources of fund toacquire the property, the agency claimed.
Investigation has also revealed that Shah is the de-factoowner of the property purchased through unexplained source of fund by hisfather-in-law, it alleged.
The ED said its probe revealed that Shah “was in touch withHafeez Sayeed, chief of banned outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa based in Pakistan and hehad been receiving money for carrying out separatist activities in J&K andhas acquired various properties through a maze of dubious transactions”.
Shah and Wani were arrested by the ED in 2017. Wani wasgranted bail by a court in January 2019.
The case dates back to August 2005 case when the Delhipolice’s special cell arrested Wani (37), an alleged hawala dealer, who hadclaimed that he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
Wani was arrested allegedly with about Rs 63 lakh, receivedthrough hawala channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunitionon August 26, 2005, according to officials.
During questioning, he had told the police that Rs 50 lakhwas to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commanderin Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and the rest was his commission, they said.
An amount of Rs 63 lakh was earlier attached by the ED.
Wani, who hails from Srinagar, had also claimed that he haddelivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple installmentsover the past year and in absence of Shah he used to deliver this money to hiswife Bilquees Shah, it said. Meanwhile, the enforcement directorate (ED) saidon Friday that it has imposed a penalty of Rs 15 lakh on three alleged militantorganisation operatives and has confiscated cash worth Rs seven lakh in a17-year-old militancy funding case linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
The penalty and confiscation action has been taken under theForeign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and three people—Muhammad Ayub Mir, BechhRaj Bengani and Harbans Singh—have been charged under it, the agency said in astatement.
The FEMA adjudicating authority imposed a penalty of Rs fivelakh on Mir, Rs seven lakh on Bengani and Rs three lakh on Singh and alsoordered for the confiscation of seized cash of Rs 7 lakh under an order ofMarch 27, it said.
Under the FEMA, the ED is empowered to impose penalty onthose who contravene the law and the seized amount is confiscated by it. Aspecial director rank officer of the agency functions as the adjudicatingauthority.
The ED took over the case on the basis of a Delhi police’sspecial cell action when it arrested Mir on July 2, 2002 while he was allegedlyreceiving hawala payment of Rs seven lakh from Singh for militancy acts.
Mir, it alleged, is an active member of the LeT and was alsowanted by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
“Singh was working as a driver of Bengani and was engaged indelivering cash on the instruction of his employer to Mir”.
According to the agency, Bengani was “an infamous racketeer” in hawala trade of criminal evasion of legal banking routes to launder illegal funds.