UP ATS ARRESTS KEY ACCUSED IN TERROR FUNDING CASE FROM PUNE
VITAL LINK Ramesh Shah was entrusted with the task of supplying money to sleeping modules or operatives working for terror outfits in various states
LUCKNOW : The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested key accused in the terror funding case from Pune, Maharashtra on Tuesday. The ATS officials said the accused Ramesh Shah was brought to Lucknow on Thursday after taking his transit remand for further interrogation regarding alleged money transactions done by him on the behest of Pakistan based handlers. UP director general of police OP Singh said the arrest was the outcome of improved intelligence network of state agencies and their better coordination with central agencies.
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested key accused in the terror funding case, Ramesh Shah, from Pune, Maharashtra on Tuesday.
The ATS officials said Shah was brought to Lucknow on Thursday after taking his transit remand for further interrogation regarding alleged money transactions done by him on the behest of Pakistan based handlers.
UP director general of police OP Singh said the arrest was the outcome of improved intelligence network of state agencies and their better coordination with central agencies.
He said the ATS was searching for Shah after the arrest of 10 people from Lucknow, Pratapgarh and Gorakhpur in UP and Rewa in MP for their alleged
involvement in terror-funding activities on March 24 earlier this year.
Inspector general (IG) of police, ATS, Asim Arun said Shah had been entrusted with the task of supplying money to sleeping modules or operatives working for terror outfits in various states.
He said the money was transferred to different bank accounts in Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and several North Eastern states.
“Most of the money transferred to bank accounts was deposited by people in Pakistan,
Qatar and Nepal. Shah was in direct touch with a Pakistan-based handler, who reportedly has links with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba,” Arun said.
He added, “Two of the arrested men – Sanjay Saroj who was nabbed from Pratapgarh and Uma Shankar Singh held from Rewa in Madhya Pradesh – were in direct touch with Shah and helped him in carrying out money transactions.”
The IG said Saroj and Singh helped Shah to rope in other people to identify bank accounts which could be used for transfer of money.
He said they also opened new bank accounts using fake identity proofs.
He said Shah used to get 10% of the amount transferred and he had invested a big amount in different businesses.
Others arrested earlier were Neeraj Mishra from Pratapgarh, Sahil Maseeh from Lucknow, and Mukesh Prasad, Musharraf Ansari alias Nikhil Rai, Sushil Rai, Dayanand Yadav, Naseem Ahmad and Arshad Naeem, all from Gorakhpur.
Of them Musharraf had assumed the fake identity of Nikhil Rai and his real identity was established only after his arrest.
Another ATS official familiar with the developments said a number of teams had been working for over one year after the arrest of Satvinder Singh and Dadu from RS Pura sector in Jammu and Kashmir in November 2016.
They were accused of spying for Pakistan and sharing secret information on mobile networking applications.