ED to attach assets worth crores in Tablighi money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing money laundering charges against Tablighi Jamaat and its chief Maulana Saad, is preparing to attach at least three immovable assets of the outfit located in Nizamuddin area in the national capital.

Sources said the agency is also trying to collect details about several other movable and immovable assets of Tablighi Jamaat, which will be attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). ED sleuths are in touch with senior officials of the crime branch of Delhi Police, who have identified movable and immovable assets of Jamaat and its chief, they added. The central probe agency has registered a money laundering case against Mohammad Saad and the outfit. The ED’s action is based on the FIR registered by the crime branch of Delhi Police. The Tablighi Jamaat Markaz, an Islamic organisation has come under the scanner for flouting the nationwide lockdown to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus.

The ED is also collecting details about at least 75 Jamaat members who allegedly played a crucial role in arranging funds for the outfit. “It is suspected that these members recently visited several countries for spreading Jamaat’s activities outside India also. Jamaat’s suspected links with foreign organisations are already under the scanner of the ED”, sources said.

Preliminary investigation by the central probe agency has revealed that these members visited other countries following the instruction of Maulana Saad, they added. Earlier, between 27 February and 1 March 2020, Jamaat organised an international mass religious gathering at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which has been linked to more than 600 Covid-19 cases, making it the largestknown centre of transmission of the virus in the southeast.