ED attaches assets of Kashmir-based hawala operator

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached assets worth ₹7.32 lakh of a Kashmir-based alleged hawala operator in connection with a money laundering case linked to terror financing.

It said a provisional order for attachment, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has been issued against Aijaz Hussain Khwaja. He is a resident of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The attached assets consist of a portion of a residential flat at Jangpura in Delhi and some bank balance held by Khwaja’s wife.

The present market value of the attached property is higher,” the central probe agency said in a statement.

Khwaja, 57, was arrested in 2006 by the special cell of Delhi Police from the Lodhi Road area with over 2 kgs of RDX explosive and ₹49 lakh in cash.

Police had then said Khwaja was one of the 44 winners of the President’s National Awards for artisans and handicrafts in 2003.

The ED said he was later convicted and handed a seven-year jail term by a lower court under sections of the Explosive Substances Act and the UAPA. PTI