ED books bank manager for colluding with militants

Terror Funding and Fake Currency Cell in NIA has also been constituted to focus on investigating the flow of money to anti-national activities.

Srinagar: In a new dimension to the menace of terror financing, a bank manager in North Kashmir allegedly colluded with Al-Badar militants in circulation of fake money by supplying genuine notes in exchange of counterfeit ones.

The Enforcement Directorate, which is looking into at least five cases related to financing of terror, found that the bank manager had entered into a criminal conspiracy with terrorists of Al-Badar and got fake currency with face value
of Rs 20 lakh in exchange of Rs 10 lakh of genuine currency, official sources said.

The ED sleuths feel that this may not be a stand alone case and there could be a possibility that other bank officials may be colluding with terror groups to exchange Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

In this case, a bank manager at Rafiabad in North Kashmir was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir Police last year and during the course of investigations it was found that he had allegedly conspired with terror group Al-Badar.

There have been some cases where fake notes have even been received by customers from Automated Teller Machines and the sleuths believe that this fake notes might have been mixed with genuine one, the sources said.

Sources in central agencies believe that the North Kashmir`s Sopore, Rafiabad and Lolab belt were highly susceptible to injection of fake currency and have asked banks for strict monitoring of deposits.

The Enforcement Directorate has got into picture after the Union Home Ministry asked the finance ministry to look into various spheres of cases which involved financing of terror.

The ED has so far registered five cases including where four traders engaged in business across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir were booked by Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged hawala racket for Lashker-e-Toiba terror outfit.

The Centre has constituted Combating of Funding of Terrorist (CFT) cell within the Union Home Ministry. This is the first such cell and functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs but will be headed by an officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax), the sources said.

The cell liaises with agencies like the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, CBI and Directorate General of Customs and Central Excise Intelligence and
scrutinises information collected from central police organisations and the Financial Intelligence Unit.

Terror Funding and Fake Currency (TFFC) Cell in National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also been constituted to focus on investigating the flow of money to anti-national activities.

PTI

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