E-Paper
Hawala racket: Former J&K minister, his aide sent to judicial custody till May 15
On April 11, a fast-track court had sent former J&K minister Jatinder Singh alias Babu Singh and his close aide Mohammad Shareef Shah to five-day police remand
Special judge of the NIA court, Jammu, Sunit Gupta on Saturday refused further police remand of former J&K minister Jatinder Singh alias Babu Singh and his close aide Mohammad Shareef Shah in the alleged Hawala racket and remanded them to judicial custody till May 15.
Accordingly, both of them were shifted to high security Kot Bhalwal jail till May 15.
High court lawyer Aseem Sawhney, who appeared on behalf of Babu Singh and Shah, said, “The court granted month-long judicial remand of former minister Babu Singh and Mohammad Shareef Shah till May 15.”
He said that both the accused were remanded to Kot Bhalwal Jail on the outskirts of Jammu city.
While Shah was physically present in the court, Babu Singh could not be produced because of his broken limb.
“On April 11, the last date of hearing, the former minister was complaining of pain in his foot and the court had directed a medical checkup,” said Sawhney.
The police had on Saturday sought judicial remand of both the accused and the court, while considering the nature of crime as ‘heinous’, remanded them to one-month judicial custody.
On April 11, a fast-track court had sent former Congress minister and his close aide to five-day police remand.
Presiding officer of the fast-track court Khalil Choudhary (having charge of special judge NIA) had granted the police remand whose deadline ceased on Saturday.
The court had passed the order following an application filed on Monday by subdivisional police officer of Gandhi Nagar police station DSP Sachit Sharma.
In the application, the police had sought the remand Shah of Kokernag in Anantnag and Jatinder Singh of ward number 1 in Kathua town for a period of 10 days.
The police had produced CD file before the court to seek 10-day police remand.
Shah and Babu Singh were booked under FIR number 73/2022 for the commission of offence under Sections 17/18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act at the Gandhi Nagar police station.
On April 9, the police had nabbed the fugitive former minister from Keerian Gandial village in Kathua district.
The former minister was absconding since March 31 after the police recovered about ₹7 lakh of Hawala money and arrested Mohammad Shareef Shah, “who was given the task by Babu Singh”.
“With the arrest of Babu Singh, we will be able to establish the entire network of Hawala money, which had been sent to Jammu to fund and fuel terrorism in the region,” a senior police officer had said.
On March 31, on the basis of a specific inputs, several checking points were established by the police in Jammu city.
On suspicion, the police team had arrested Shah, 64, and recovered ₹6.9 lakh from him.
On questioning, Shah had disclosed that he was asked by Jatinder Singh to collect the money from one Omer at Srinagar. After receiving money from Omer, Shah had came to Jammu and was caught.
On further questioning, he had disclosed names of his local and foreign associates as Javed and Khatib, residents of PoK and Farooq Khan of Toronto in Canada.
