by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
T.R. Zeliang
New Delhi : The NIA has summoned former Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang for questioning in connection with an alleged “tax collection and terror funding” case, an official said on Monday.
The case pertains to alleged extortion by groups such as NSCN(K), NSCN(IM) and Naga National Council from at least 14 government departments.
Zeliang has been asked to appear at the National Investigation Agency headquarters here on Tuesday with relevant documents.
Ahead of the Assembly election in the state, the NIA had summoned Zeliang’s Officer on Special Duty and two of his office staff for questioning in connection with the alleged terror funding case.
On January 18, 2017, the NIA had conducted searches in various government departments in Nagaland and seized receipts that showed payments to the tune of Rs 2 crore.
The agency had said that these seizures prima facie indicate the connivance of these government organisations in funding various underground organisations operating in Nagaland.
According to sources, these departments include the Directorate of Information Technology, Directorate of Soil and Water Conservation, Directorate of Irrigation, Directorate of Rural Development, Directorate of Urban Development, PWD, Roads and Buildings, and Directorate of Information and Public Relations.
S. Khetoshe Sumi, a senior cadre of NSCN(K), was apprehended by the Assam Rifles in Dimapur on July 31, 2016, according to the NIA.
Sumi reportedly revealed that he was the organisation’s “in-charge of finance” and his key responsibility was to collect funds through illegal taxation of various government departments, the NIA said.
The NIA probe into government workers and underground funding is a sensitive subject in Nagaland.
In November 2017, massive protests rocked Kohima after seven government officials were reportedly arrested for funding underground groups, called Naga National Political Groups, through taxation.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday denied before the Supreme Court the allegation of Kerala woman Hadiya, who is in the midst of a “love jihad” controversy, that the agency behaved with her with a prejudice as if she is a criminal or a terrorist.
The NIA, in an affidavit, filed in the apex court said it has conducted the investigation in a “fair, objective and impartial manner” based upon evidence and material collected so far.
Denying the allegations of Hadiya that she was misled to portray her husband Shafin Jahan as a terrorist and that she was treated as a criminal, the agency said the allegations are “misconceived, entirely baseless, incorrect”.
The NIA denied Hadiya’s allegation that some personnel of the agency behaved with her with a prejudice as if she is a criminal or a terrorist, saying the entire probe has been undertaken by it in accordance with the order passed by the apex court.
“The NIA has conducted the investigation in a fair, objective and impartial manner based upon the evidence/ material collected so far. There is no question of any personnel, who was entrusted with the investigation of the case, acting in a prejudicial manner, much less treating Hadiya as a criminal or a terrorist,” stated the affidavit filed by the NIA.
The agency also rejected Hadiya’s charge that it had created a story (of love jihad and forced conversions to Islam) and were trying to establish it without any proof. The NIA asked the court to take into consideration the outcome of the status report filed by it before passing any order.
Hadiya, in her affidavit before the top court, had earlier said that she converted to Islam and married Jahan on her own and wanted to remain like that.
She had levelled allegations against her father and some NIA officials for being prejudiced.
The court had asked the NIA, which is investigating the matter, to probe into any criminality in the marriage, but not to intrude into it.
On investigation aspect, the NIA in its affidavit said that it has almost completed the investigation except examination of two individuals, Fasal Musthafa and Shirin Shahand, who are material and crucial witnesses in the case.
The agency said it has been learnt that these two individuals left India before the NIA took over the investigation, as directed by the court, and they are currently in Yemen.
“The NIA got look-out circulars issued through competent authority. Barring these two crucial witnesses, the investigation by the NIA is almost complete,” it stated.
“The NIA will complete the investigation at the earliest and will proceed in accordance with the law based on the outcome of the investigation of the case,” affidavit added.
The top court by its November 27, 2017 order had set Hadiya free from the custody of her parents and directed that she be allowed to complete her studies at a Salem homeopathy college.
The apex court will hear the case next on March 9.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali
By Amiya Kumar Kushwaha,
New Delhi : Prominent Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, known to be close to Hurriyat leaders, used to show foreign remittances under “other income” in his proprietorship firm and pass on the funds to the separatists to fuel anti-India agenda in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the NIA.
“The secessionists depend heavily on the hawala network and conduits to bring money from offshore locations to India to fuel anti-India activities in Jammu and Kashmir,” said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet which describes Watali as one of the conduits dealing with Hawala transactions.
The NIA has contended its allegation with incriminating documents recovered from the house of his cashier. The documents disclosed that Watali received funds from Pakistani establishment and terror organisation and transferred it to secessionists.
Watali was bringing money from offshore locations to India by layering it through scores of firms and companies.
On January 18, the NIA chargesheeted Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders, Watali and two alleged stone pelters — Kamran and Javed Ahmed Bhat — in the case of terror funding in the Kashmir Valley.
The NIA alleged that the jailed separatist leaders conspired with Saeed and Salahuddin to wage war against India to secede Jammu and Kashmir and booked them under stringent anti-terror laws.
The separatists, arrested on July 24, 2017, are Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.
Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.
The NIA, in its chargesheet, claimed that in an account of J&K bank, Watali received foreign remittance of Rs 93 lakh between 2011 and 2013 from unknown sources. The probe also revealed receiving of Rs 2.26 crore in different account from 2011 to 2016.
“During the course of investigation, it was also ascertained that Watali was showing foreign remittance under ‘other income’ in his proprietorship firm viz Trison International, Srinagar,” the chargesheet read.
The NIA has also cited other similar types of transactions and said all these foreign remittances are from unknown sources.
The probe also revealed a lease agreement signed between a UAE businessman and Watali in 2014.
United Arab Emirates businessmen Naval Kishore Kapoor entered an agreement with Trison Farms and Constructions through its Managing Director Watali to take land in Budgam on lease.
Kapoor remitted a total amount of Rs 5.579 crore in 22 instalments between 2013 and 2016 to Watali.
According to the NIA, the said land did not exist in the name of the company and the agreement lacks legal sanctity.
“This proves that the said agreement was a ‘cover’ created by Watali to bring foreign remittance from unknown sources to India.”
On the basis of documents seized from Watali which disclosed a list of ISI officials and a letter addressed to Pakistan High Commissioner recommending grant of visa to him, the NIA said this shows his proximity with Pakistani establishment.
(Amiya Kumar Kushwaha can be contacted at amiya.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the NIA to continue its probe into any criminality in the marriage of Hadiya, a Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, with Shafin Jahan but not intrude into their marriage.
Observing that the probe into the criminal aspect has to be segregated from the marriage, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said “…otherwise we will be creating a bad precedent in law”.
“We can’t go into the marriage. Whether the person she is married to is good human being or a bad human” — the bench observed, noting that Hadiya is 24 years old and has made an independent decision and choice to marry. Hadiya was known as Akhila Ashokan before she converted.
Making it clear that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has to stay away from the marriage of Hadiya with Shafin, the court observed that the agency could probe into “all other aspects except her marriage”.
Hadiya was set free and allowed to pursue her studies in the last hearing of the matter on November 27 as she had told the court that she wanted to pursue her internship in the Sivaraj Homeopathic College and Research Institute in Salem in Tamil Nadu.
Hadiya had told the court that she wanted “freedom and release”. She was put in the custody of her parents by a Kerala High Court order.
Having told the NIA not to intrude into their marriage, the court said that the only question it was concerned with is whether the High Court could have annulled the marriage of Hadiya with Shafin in the wake of a habeas corpus petition, a concern the court had expressed in earlier hearings also.
The court also made Hadiya a party in the matter, which will now be heard on February 22 when the apex court will examine the validity of the High Court’s order that annulled the marriage.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A chargesheet against seven Kashmiri separatists and a businessman in a case of funding terror in the Kashmir Valley will be filed by the NIA on Thursday, the day their judicial custody ends, officials said.
According to National Investigation Agency (NIA) sources, the agency will file the chargesheet against the arrested separatist leaders and a businessman under various sections of money laundering and waging war against country as the judicial custody ends on January 18.
A Delhi court on January 12 extended the judicial custody of the eight accused till January 18.
The eight have been charged with receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmir was rocked by violent protests after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with security forces on July 8, 2016.
An official of the agency said that they will be charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAP Act of 1967) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 121 Waging, or attempting to wage war against the state and Section 120 B entering into criminal conspiracy.
According to a senior official of the agency, the main chargesheet prepared by the NIA contains close to 50 pages and the annexure attached to the chargesheet, may run into nearly 5,000 pages.
On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them — Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah — on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.
Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.
Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for separatists and terror activities in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested on August 17 last year.
He was allegedly collecting funds from Pakistan and banned terrorist organisations and transferring the same to Hurriyat leaders.
Watali is known to be friends with Pakistani leaders as well as separatists, besides leading politicians in Kashmir, the NIA said.
The NIA has filed a case against the separatist leaders on May 30 following a sting operation by a television channel after the Geelani-led Hurriyat suspended Nayeem Khan confessed that Hurriyat leaders had been receiving funds from Pakistan for subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.
Hafeez Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ul Dawah, the front of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Dukhtaran-e-Milat.
The NIA had questioned the arrested persons after the May 2017 expose. The counter-terror probe agency had also conducted raids in Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi and Haryana and reportedly seized incriminating evidence against those involved in receiving, acting as intermediaries and final beneficiaries of funds coming from Pakistan.
India has for decades accused Pakistan of arming, financing and training militants fighting to end Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir. Islamabad says it provides only political and diplomatic support.
—IANS
