E-Paper
Terror funding case: Accused transferred money into bank accounts in Pak, other countries
lkoreportersdesk@htlive.com
lkoreportersdesk@htlive.com
Two foreign nationals, Chinweduba Emeka Michael and Peter Herman Assenga, who were arrested by the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) from Mumbai in a terror funding case on October 24, allegedly transferred around US$ 2,50,000 (₹Rs 17.73 million) into different bank accounts of six countries including Pakistan, China and Russia, said ATS officials.
DK Thakur, ADG, UP ATS, said the funds were transferred to multiple bank accounts of Pakistan (Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi), China, Ethiopia, Russia, Tanzania and Nigeria in the past two years.
During interrogation, the two accused revealed that they lured Indian and Nepal nationals by offering them 5 to 10% commission for using their bank accounts to transfer funds into bank accounts of different countries, said Thakur. The two accused were in custody of ATS since October 31.
“Names of many Indian and Nepalese nationals’ have surfaced whose bank accounts were used for funds transfer. Further probe is on in the matter,” added Thakur.
He said hackers used to transfer funds to different Indian and Nepalese bank accounts after hacking servers of banks and thereafter the same money was transferred to other countries.
During investigation it was found that server of Nepal Rastra Bank, Janakpur branch, was hacked and Rs 49 lakh (Nepalese currency) was transferred into back accounts of one Vijay Singh and Chandra Budda in Krishi Vikas Bank, district Kailali, Nepal. Both Singh and Budda were earlier arrested by the Nepalese police in Nepal.
Thakur said Michael was a Nigerian national and he visited India on tourist visa in March 2018 and overstayed here illegally. Assenga, who claimed to be an Indian national (with Indian father and Tanzanian mother), was suspected to be a Tanzanian national and this was being verified by the Tanzanian embassy, he added.
The terror funding racket was unearthed after the arrest of four people from Lakhimpur Kheri on October 11. These included Umed Ali, Sanjay Agarwal, Araz Ali of Kheri and Sameer Salmani of Bareilly who were allegedly channelising money from Nepal into India for terror activities.
The police had recovered ₹4.75 lakh (Indian currency), ₹1.35 lakh (Nepalese currency) and four cell phones from them at the time of their arrest.
On October 17, two more key accused Sirajudeen and Faheem were arrested from their hideouts in Bareilly. Later, two others Michael and Assenga were arrested from Mumbai on October 24.
