Religious teacher worked at Pak behest
Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Sept 10: The Enforcement Directorate today said that it has made a fresh arrest in an alleged narco-terrorism-linked money laundering case related to the “funding” of banned terrorist group Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen.
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Laddi Ram was taken into custody on Monday and was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Jammu that sent him to ED custody for four days, the agency said in a statement.
Two others — Arshad Ahmed Allaie and Fayaz Ahmed Dar — were arrested by the federal agency in this case earlier.
The money laundering case stems from a 2019 FIR and a charge sheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police against the accused on the charge of “operating a narco-terrorism module leading to seizure and identification of drugs and illicit cash”.
“A network of collusion with drug smuggling and terrorism was unearthed as part of this investigation. Laddi Ram, as the instrumental person in the narco-terror linkage, received cross-border smuggled drugs from Arshad Ahmed Allaie, and distributed and sold those in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir,” the ED said.
Ram remitted the proceeds of crime in the form of illicit funds via bank transactions to Arshad Ahmed Allaie, it said.
The federal probe agency claimed that Allaie routed the funds into the hands of terrorists linked to Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen for the “sole purpose of subversive activities.”
The transaction profiling of the bank accounts found “huge cash deposits obtained via drug sales, routed through multiple suspected inter-connected transactions, disguising the actual source and nature of funds,” the ED added.
Altaf Hafiz, a religious teacher, acted in smuggling of heroin into India as per directions from Pakistan based handlers while Allie, assisted by Fayaz Ahmed Dar, taking up heroin from Altaf Hafiz, and utilizing his business, M/s New Style Car Bazaar, Bijbehara, Anantnag as a front, was responsible for the distribution of the drugs to Laddi Ram and receiving funds against the same.
Laddi Ram sold the drugs in J&K and Punjab, and remitted the proceeds to Arshad, who provided funds to accused Latief Dar and Shafi Bhat, former militants of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), who distributed the same towards terrorist activities. All these accused persons were acting on the directions of Pakistan based accused persons acting as financiers and handlers of HM for anti-India activities
The investigation into this case is still on as the Directorate of Enforcement continues to pursue leads and gather evidence.
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