The Enforcement Directorate is likely to start investigations into the terror funding routes of Indian Mujahideen terrorists arrested by the police. Official sources said the the directorate is considering interrogation of alleged IM terrorists arrested by Delhi and Utter Pradesh police for terror financing. They said the ED will seek information from the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police against certain IM suspects.
Based on the information provided, ED will probe the funding routes under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. "We share the information collected during our probe with various agencies. If and when the ED asks for information, we will completely cooperate with them," a senior official of Delhi Police's anti-terrorism unit Special Cell said. The Directorate is currently probing funding sources of a number of terror suspects and has registered over 25 cases across India on charges of money laundering and has also frozen many bank accounts. The government had last year amended the PMLA, giving ED the powers to freeze funds associated with terrorist outfits.
The Special Cell had arrested five IM suspects in 2009 for their involvement in 2008 serials bomb blasts cases which occurred in Karol Bagh, Connaught Place and Greater Kailash. Those arrested were Mohammad Hakim, Mohammad Mansoor Asghar Peerboy, Mubeen Kadar Sheikh alias Salman, Asif Bashiruddin Sheikh and Akbar Ismail Chaudhary. The government has decided to set up a centralised database to check terror funding by integrating intelligence from different central security agencies. Sources in the Union Home Ministry had said the proposed database would act as a "ready reckoner" for different security and law and order enforcement agencies to check illegal routing of money through various financial channels meant to further organised crime and support anti-national activities.
The government had last year detected over 4,000 suspicious transactions relating to crime and terror. Out of a total of 4,409 suspicious transactions 2,826 were reported by banks, 841 by financial institutions and 742 by intermediaries taking the number to more than double of 1,916 transactions reported in 2008. Various enforcement agencies like the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Excise and Customs, Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau and the ED were sent 2,450 Suspicious Transaction Reports for further action by the Financial Intelligence Unit in 2009.
