NEW DELHI: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested a Jharkhand-based madrasa educated software developer for his connection with an illegal e-ticket racket having suspected links to terror financing.
Ghulam Mustafa was arrested from Bhubaneswar, according to the RPF, adding that the accused started touting in 2015 in Bengaluru and later gradually moved on to e-tickets and illegal software.
For the last 10 days, the IB, the Special Bureau, the ED, the NIA, and the Karnataka Police have interrogated Mustafa.
“Dimensions of money laundering and terror financing are suspected,” RPF Director-General Arun Kumar said at a press briefing. Mustafa has 563 personal IRCTC user IDs and a list of 2,400 SBI branches and 600 regional rural banks where he is suspected to have accounts, Kumar said.
An Indian software company with branches across the country and abroad has also come under the scanner for having links to the racket, Kumar said, adding that the company has been involved in a case of money laundering in Singapore.
“Mustafa’s phone has many Pakistani, Bangladeshi, West Asian, Indonesian, Nepali numbers as well as six virtual numbers. There was also an application to create fake Aadhaar cards.” Kumar added.
The RPF chief named Hamid Ashraf as the mastermind of the racket which is suspected to generate revenue of Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore per month. investigators are now trying to apprehend another person who is called ‘Guruji’ .