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Terror funding case: Pune court sends suspect to ATS remand till June 14
The Pune district and sessions court on Friday sent terror suspect Aftab Hussain Abdul Jabbar Shah (28) to Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) custody till June 14
PUNE The Pune district and sessions court on Friday sent terror suspect Aftab Hussain Abdul Jabbar Shah (28) to Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) custody till June 14.
The ATS sleuths on Friday produced Shah, arrested from Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir on charges of being the link between arrested suspect Junaid Mohammad Ata Mohammad (28) and a LeT operative based in a foreign country.
Shah was arrested on June 2 and produced before Kishtwar local court and obtained transit remand following which he was brought to Pune where his custodial remand was sought by the anti-terror agency. The ATS sleuths during a search operation in his house seized three mobiles, an Aadhaar card, a voter’s ID card, a J&K bank passbook and a diary which has entries of phone numbers and addresses.
Arun Waikar, ACP, ATS, Pune, in his remand application before the court stated that the custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary to find out proof of the crimes from the three mobile phones seized from the accused.
The other reasons listed for custodial interrogation included verification of bank account transactions done by the accused, to find out more about the module of recruitment, training and funding of recruits for the banned Lashkar E Toiba (LET) terror outfit, the accused was in touch with several other persons across different parts of the country and the same needs to be investigated and to find out which electronic equipment and mediums were used by the arrested and the wanted accused for communication-related to committing of terrorist acts in the country,” the application stated.
Besides Shah, the other two accused have been identified as Hamidullah Zargar from Kulgam and Omar who, are wanted in the case.
Shah, according to ATS, was born and brought up in Kishtwar, J&K. He is a carpenter by profession and owns land in Kishtwar. “He is accused of being the link between Junaid Mohammed and a LeT operative based in a foreign country,” read the statement.
A criminal case has already been registered at ATS, Kalachowki police station on May 24.
ATS is investigating the role of the trio in funding, recruitment and procurement of arms and ammunition for the LeT as well as arms training for other operatives. The ATS is probing five social media platform accounts which were used to communicate with the youth and encourage them to join the banned terror outfit by instigating communal sentiments.
ATS has claimed that a messenger-based group named “Ansar Gazawat-ul Hind Tawheed” was formed by Zargar in which several anti-national terror activities were discussed and planned since 2021 with the motive of brainwashing the youngsters. Junaid was in direct contact with Zargar, Shah, and Omar. Junaid, according to officials, was found accepting ₹10,000 as funds from Jammu and Kashmir-based terror organisation. ATS investigation has revealed that Junaid had received two transfers of ₹5,000 each from terror operatives.
