BENGALURU: A terrorist of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been convicted to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for money laundering by Principal City Civil Judge and Special Judge on Thursday.
Bilal Ahmed Quta alias Imran Jalal, who operated from Karnataka, has also been fined `50,000 by the court. Judge Shivshankar Amarannavar pronounced the verdict. According to Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bilal had entered into a conspiracy from 2001 to 2007 to wage war against India and he was the member of LeT and was operating from Karnataka.
The state police apprehended him and a case was registered against him by Yeswantpur Police Station. Later, he was convicted in the court. Bilal was arrested with an AK series assault rifle, 200 bullets, five hand grenades and a satellite phone by Karnataka police while he was alighting from a bus in Bengaluru. He was charged with “waging war” against the government of India, possession of arms and explosives and other sections of the IPC.
The Central probe agency also “confiscated” `34,830 funds from Quta under anti-money laundering laws as it identified the money to be meant for terror financing. This is the fourth case of conviction under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the country. The PMLA was enacted in 2002 and implemented from 2005 to check serious crimes of tax evasion, generation of black money and money laundering.
This is the second conviction under PMLA by a Bengaluru court after July 2017 when a Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Fahad Hai, belonging to the banned terror group Al-Badr, was convicted under PMLA. He was also sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.