Police arrest absconding ex-minister in Hawala money case

Jammu: Jammu and Kathua Police, in a joint operation, on Saturday arrested the former minister Babu Singh, who had been evading arrest in a hawala money case, from Kathua.

As per the sources, the police came to know about his presence in an area in Kathua district and accordingly the operation was conducted. “The Jammu and Kathua police coordinated after they developed inputs about his presence in an area in Kathua. Immediately, a police team led by DySP Headquarters swung into action and they arrested him,” said the police sources.

   

Although the police officially did not make any statement about Singh’s arrest, official sources said that the former minister was taken into custody and brought to the Police Station Raj Bagh.

“From there, Jammu police brought him to the winter capital for further investigation. It was a joint operation of police from two districts that led to the arrest of the former minister,” said the police sources.

Pertinently, Singh was wanted in a hawala money case after the police recovered over Rs 6.90 lakh from a person in Jammu recently. That person identified as Mohammed Shareef Shah (64), resident of Syed Poora, Larnoo, Kokernag (Anantnag) had disclosed the name of the former minister, who, he alleged, was to receive the hawala money.

“Shah, during his questioning, had disclosed the names of Jatinder Singh (Babu Singh) the former minister and chairman of Nature-Mankind Friendly Global Party. He had claimed that he was allegedly tasked by Babu Singh to collect money from Omar at Srinagar,” police had stated.

“He, however, was arrested by the police in Jammu before he could have delivered the money to Babu Singh,” the police had added.

The police had also detained Sidhant Sharma of Kathua, Gurdev Singh and Mohammed Sharif Sartaj, both from Jammu, with regard to hawala transactions and their questioning was in progress.

In the course of investigation, the names of three other persons also surfaced and they included Javed and Khatib, both residents of parts of J&K across the Line of Control and Farooq Khan of Toronto, Canada.

Pertinently, police claimed that Shareef Shah was the admin of a whatsapp group having members from various countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

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