*Businessmen took shield of Valley made, grown items
Sanjeev Pargal/
Fayaz Bukhari
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, June 3: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) today raided 32 locations of separatists and businessmen in Kashmir, Haryana and New Delhi for funds received by separatist groups through various hawala channels for fueling unrest and militancy in the Valley.
Several top businessmen of New Delhi and Haryana were among those whose residences and business premises in New Delhi and Haryana were raided by large number of the NIA teams across three States. The raids, which started with the onset of dawn, continued at some places till tonight leading to huge recoveries including an estimated Rs 2.5 crores in cash, gold worth Rs 50 lakh including 85 gold coins, property related documents, pen-drives, laptops, incriminating documents and letter heads of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfits, highly placed sources told the Excelsior.
The raids were conducted after the NIA converted Preliminary Enquiry (PE) registered in hawala connections of the separatists into a First Information Report (FIR) after getting enough evidence that separatists and certain other persons were engaged in pumping hawala money in the Kashmir valley to fund militancy and unrest.
In New Delhi, the NIA raided the residence of top businessman Manav Arora at posh Greater Kailash locality. It also searched houses and other business premises of Dharmesh Goyal and Kumar Giri at Khari Baoil in Delhi. While Arora is a prominent dry fruit businessman, Goyal and Giri deal with spices and dry fruits.
The NIA sleuths also carried out raids at the residence and business concerns of noted trader Pyau Manhari at Sonepat and Kundli in Haryana while residence and business premises of two Kashmir based dry fruit merchants, who have been staying in New Delhi for the past 10 years, were raided at Rohini, New Delhi.
The NIA also conducted raids at Ballimaran in Old Delhi, where some transactions of hawala money had taken place. The name of Ballimaran earlier also figured during the investigations as it was from this area that some traders had dispatched hawala money to separatists and OGWs in the Valley to fund militancy and unrest in Kashmir, sources pointed out.
Significantly, sources said majority of the businessmen, whose residence and business premises were raided in New Delhi and Haryana simultaneously today along with Kashmir separatists and others, were dealing in the business of dry fruits, spices, apples, shawls etc, the items majority of which are grown or manufactured in Kashmir.
“This made it easy for the traders to have frequent inter-action in Kashmir and, in turn, send hawala money there,’’ sources said.
The early morning swoop resulted in the seizure of letterheads of militant outfits Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e Toiba (LeT), gold worth Rs 50 lakh and around Rs 2.5 crore in cash besides property related documents, pen-drives, laptops, and other incriminating documents, sources said.
Sleuths from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the nodal agency for money laundering probes, were part of the raiding parties.
After registering an FIR earlier this week, various NIA teams, which had been camping in the Valley for few days, moved under heavy escort from their camp office located at Humhama, on the outskirts of the Srinagar city.
Among those whose houses were raided by the NIA are Altaf Fantoosh, the son-in-law of Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Shahid-ul-Islam, leader of Awami Action Committee led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Zaffar Akbar Bhat. The raids at Shahidul Islam and Altaf Fantoosh took place for several hours. However, at Bhat’s residence they only questioned him.
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The NIA also questioned Chairman Jammu and Kashmir National Front (JKNF) Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karrate and Javed Ahmed Baba alias ‘Gazi’ of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.
The raids were also conducted at the residence of prominent businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali. He is brother of former DIG Ali Mohammad Wattali. His nephew is also a high ranking officer in Jammu and Kashmir police.
The raids were also conducted at the residences of Nazir Mir, Gas distributor of Shamsabad Bemina, Farooq Ahmad Wani, Gas distributor Shamsabad Bemina, Trader Raja Zahoor, Businessman Mohammad Sultan Chadinu, businessman Bashir Ahamd Bhat alias Nengro, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat of Wanabal and a Gas dealer who is brother of separatist leader Farooq Ahmad alias Bitta Karatey. Some cash was also recovered from a separatist leader’s brother in Naseem Bagh area of Srinagar.
The NIA, which had earlier registered a Preliminary Enquiry, also raided around eight hawala dealers and traders in Delhi, besides two in Sonepat, Haryana. They also raided residences of some Kashmiri businessmen in Delhi.
The raids were carried after three separatists Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karrate and Javed Ahmed Baba alias ‘Gazi’ were questioned by NIA in New Delhi for three days for their role in 2016 unrest and funding from Pakistan for creating unrest in Kashmir.
The NIA action came after registration of a formal FIR in the case in connection with the larger conspiracy to fund separatists in the Valley from Pakistan. The FIR alleged that money received from Pakistan is used to fund violence in the Kashmir Valley, including activities such as stone pelting on security forces and torching of schools and government buildings.
This is for the first time since militancy erupted in 1990s that a central probe agency has carried out raids in connection with funding to the separatists.
Earlier in 2002, Income Tax department had carried out searches against separatist leaders, including Geelani, and seized cash and other documents. However, no criminal case had been registered then.
In the meantime, the ED has issued fresh summons to Shabir Shah in connection with an over a decade-old case of money laundering registered against him for financing militancy.
The agency has asked Shah to depose before the investigating officer (IO) of the case here on June 6. It had issued a similar summons to Shah on May 25 but he had failed to keep the date.
The ED has issued several summons to Shah over the last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case wherein the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. Shah has not appeared before the ED so far.
The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.
Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through ‘hawala’ channels from the Middle East and a large cache of ammunition on August 26, 2005.
During questioning, Wani had told the police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e- Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and the rest was his commission.
Wani, who hailed from Srinagar, had also claimed that he had delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple instalments.
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