NEW DELHI: The NIA on Wednesday said it had found that the terror organisations and their overseas sympathisers were transferring money to civilians’ bank accounts in Jammu and Kashmir to finance activities against the country.
The agency has started a probe after they found that certain bank accounts in the state had seen huge transaction of funds in the last few months despite the fact that these accounts were in names of persons whose income didn’t warrant such banking transactions.
NIA Inspector General Sanjeev Kumar Singh said, “Running the risk of getting caught by security and intelligence agencies, militant organisations and their sympathisers have begun jettisoning hawala channels for transferring money and are wooing Kashmiris who travel to Gulf countries for work.”
The agency has registered a preliminary inquiry and will submit a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs. “One per cent of the money received is left in the bank account of the individual by their ‘handlers’ based abroad as commission,” a source said. The money so deposited in the bank accounts is withdrawn within days. Some people who received such dubious money have no connection with the depositors and the amounts are withdrawn within 48 hours of being transferred.
In order to avoid detection by the RBI, the funds are transferred in small amounts not exceeding `1 lakh. Banks are mandated to give a suspicious transaction report if they find over `10 lakh has been deposited in any account in one go and also if they notice a regular flow of large amounts into it from the same source. “The money is deposited in various accounts in order to avoid being noticed and named in suspicious transaction report. The same set of people is used after a gap of no less than three to four months,” the scource added. Over-invoicing of goods by some Kashmiri businessmen in the Gulf has also come under the NIA lens.
2 jawans, cop killed
Two Armymen and a policeman were killed when Hizbul Mujahideen militants attacked a Army convoy in Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Wednesday. An Army official said a group of two-three militants ambushed the convoy on the Srinagar-Baramulla NH at Khawja Bagh around 2.30 am. A police vehicle was also passing through the area when the militants attacked the convoy.