Plea to release ₹46L seized from 10 held by ATS dismissed

LUCKNOW: In a setback to ten people arrested in terror funding case, a Lucknow court had dismissed their petition for release of around ₹46 lakh that was seized from them by UP Anti Terror Squad (ATS) in March 2018, said UP ATS officials here on Thursday.

They said the court has dismissed the review petition filed by the accused recently on January 25.The officials said six people identified as Arshad Naeem, Naseem Ahmad, Mushraf Ansari alias Nikhil Rai, Sushil Rai alias Ankur Rai, Mukesh Prasad, and Dayanand Yadav were arrested from Gorakhpur and four others were arrested from Lucknow, Pratapgarh and Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) while unearthing a terror funding racket on March 24, 2018.They said around ₹34.30 lakh was recovered from Arshad Naeem, who owned an electronic goods and mobile shop in

Gorakhpur while ₹11.6 lakh was recovered from Naseem Ahmad along with other discriminating evidences during the search.

A senior ATS official said the accused, who are out on bail now, had filed the revision petition in a Lucknow sessions’ court against the lower court order to release the money seized from them claiming it to be their genuinely earned money. He said, however, the effective pursuance of the ATS team in the court foiled their attempt to get the money released as they failed to prove source of earning such large amount of cash.

The ATS official said the court decision will help in proving that they had earned this money through illegal sources and getting them convicted during the trial.He said the ATS investigation had so far revealed that Naeem and others arrested were entrusted with the task of supplying money to sleeping modules or operatives working for different terror outfits in various states. He said most of the money transferred to bank accounts was deposited by people in Pakistan, Qatar and Nepal. He said Naeem and others work was to identify bank accounts which could be used for transfer of money. He said they also opened new bank accounts using fake identity proofs. And in return they used to get 10 per cent of the amount transferred, he added.

HE SAID MOST OF THE MONEY TRANSFERRED TO BANK ACCOUNTS WAS DEPOSITED BY PEOPLE IN PAKISTAN, QATAR AND NEPAL