NGOs, Societies raided for hawala, money laundering
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 15: The CID Counter Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate J&K yesterday conducted searches at 22 locations in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi in connection with dubious and irregular transactions including some involving the NGOs.
In Jammu, the joint searches were conducted by the CID CI and Enforcement Directorate J&K at the premises of late PDP MLA Shanti Devi and her son Jatinder Krishan Bhat, political-cum-businesspersons at Shastri Nagar to investigate accounts of Jammu Ladies Cooperative House Building Society Limited, floated by the ex-legislator.
Shastri Nagar residence of late Shanti Devi, who was nominated as ‘Woman MLA’ by late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed during his tenure as the Chief Minister in 2002 was subjected to searches as the Society was still functioning.
During searches, the CID CI and Enforcement Directorate sleuths seized laptops, mobile sets and incriminating documents related to immovable properties, bank accounts and many resolutions adopted by the Society members. Investigations by the raiding parties revealed that Jatinder Krishan Bhat has few firms in the name of M/s Napolean and has outstanding amount of Rs 2.5 crore and are NPA from the bank.
One of the sons of late MLA is settled in New York while other had stayed at Auckland in New Zealand for 10 years.
The raiding parties are investigating hawala angle and Money Laundering by the NGO.
Meanwhile, team of intelligence officers affected searches at a total of 22 premises spread over Srinagar, Budgam and Anantnag in Kashmir, and New Delhi which include private offices and residences, he said.
The spokesman said the searches were conducted against several suspects in connection with the investigation of a case registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Armed with search warrants issued by competent judicial authority and overseen by executive magistrates as witnesses, teams of CID investigators looked for additional evidence pertaining to several dubious and irregular financial transactions, the spokesman said.
He said many of these involve suspected collusion between bank officials, private persons and public servants.
The suspected irregularities amounting to a variety of offences under different provisions of law include concealment of suspicious and dubious transactions from identification and scrutiny by closing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) alerts, wrongly closing alerts that were to be mandatorily furnished by the bank under the regulatory directions notified by the RBI with faulty and false closure remarks as ‘STR’ (suspicious transaction reports) or ‘already reported in STR’ or other related comments, whereas STR MIS did not contain these alerts.
“Dishonest exporters in collusion with bank officials obtained in advance but did not submit invoices and documents to prove that the advance so obtained from the bank have been utilised lawfully, bank officials failing to raise alerts wherein funds flowed from many different accounts into one account even when these transactions involved acceptance of huge deposits and withdrawals in cash in violation of banking rules and regulations,” the spokesman said.
He said the raids led to recovery of incriminating evidence which would be analysed for further action and form useful pieces of evidence in the investigation.
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