Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 12: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu Police today apprehended a top hawala courier of Anantnag district in Kashmir Valley from Railway Station here along with Rs 7 lakh worth fake currency, which had been sent as hawala money from West Bengal to Kashmir, reportedly for the purpose of militancy.
Initially, the SOG picked up four persons from weekly Howrah Special train as soon as it reached Jammu from Howrah railway station of West Bengal at 2.30 pm today. Four of them were let off after questioning while a cloth merchant of Anantnag turned out to be the only hawala courier.
He has been identified as Rouf Ahmad Lachoo son of Mushtaq Ahmad Lachoo, a resident of Sherpura, Anantnag. He was running a cloth shop at Chini Chowk, Anantnag.
Sources said the Intelligence Bureau had given a specific input about the movement of a Kashmiri businessman from Kolkata to Jammu in a train. On the basis of input, the SOG had laid a special naka in civvies at the Railway Station, Jammu.
As soon as the train reached Jammu Railway Station at 2.30 pm today, the SOG personnel nabbed the Kashmiri businessman and four youths of other parts of the State seated with him presuming that they might be his associates.
All of them were whisked away to SOG’s Satwari office, where four youths were released as they turned out to be students of Rajouri, Poonch and Kashmir returning to their houses on the occasion of Eid while Lachoo was arrested on the charges of smuggling hawala money from Kolkata to Kashmir.
Sources said the SOG has recovered Rs 7 lakh worth fake currency from the possession of the Kashmiri businessman, which was fake currency in the denomination of 1000 and 500.
Lachoo was being questioned to ascertain the persons, who had given him the hawala money and the person to whom it was to be delivered, sources said, adding preliminary investigations have revealed that the hawala money in the form of fake currency had been delivered to the Kashmiri businessman somewhere in Kolkata, which he was taking to the Kashmir Valley reportedly for distribution among the militants.
A case has been registered against Lachoo for further investigations. He was likely to be sent to the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) soon for sustained questioning.
It may be mentioned here that the militants had been operating on Bangladesh-West Bengal border for past several years. Several militants and their courtiers had been arrested in the past in West Bengal. The Bangladesh-Bengal route had been used by the militants several times for infiltration.
The SOG Jammu has also sounded Kashmir police about the arrest of the Anantnag based businessman and sought his antecedents.
Sources said the detailed interrogation of Lachoo would give details of the persons sending hawala money for the Kashmiri militants and other persons. The SOG has taken up detailed investigations in the case. More arrests in the case haven’t been ruled out.
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