ED attaches over Rs 70 lakh worth of assets linked to Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan-based group Falah-e-Insaniyat in terror funding case

The ED on May 2 attached assets worth Rs 73 lakh in connection with a terror financing and money laundering case linked to global terrorist Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Pakistan-based proscribed group Falah-e-Insaniyat (FIF).

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) as part of its action against terror financing in the country, including those linked to separatists and terrorists operating in the Kashmir valley, has identified assets and proceeds of crime worth Rs 212 crore in the last five months or so and has filed 13 charge sheets in these cases.

On Thursday, a provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and a residential flat and shop in Delhi, and cash and bank balance belonging to a person named Mohd Salman were attached in a case being probed against FIF, which is a front for terror group LeT, the agency said.

The FIF was founded by Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed. The ED had filed a criminal case in this regard in February after taking cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) FIR.

In the case, the NIA had carried out searches in the past and had seized over four dozen SIM cards, phones and Rs 1.56 crore cash, and arrested four people, including Salman.

Salman, who was based in Delhi, was in "regular touch with a Dubai-based Pakistan national, who in turn was connected with the deputy chief of the FIF", the ED and NIA have claimed.

The ED, in a statement, said, "Salman had received huge funds from Mohammed Kamran from Dubai through different Hawala operatives, including Mohd Salim alias Mama." "The funds received by Salman were claimed to have been used for construction of a mosque at Uttawar in Haryana's Palwal district," the ED alleged.

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Probe revealed that Salman used to "send the receipt of funds received and photographs of construction work to Kamran through e-mail." "Immovable and movable assets located in Delhi of accused Mohd Salman and his family members totalling worth Rs 73.12 lakh have been provisionally attached," it said.

Salman, at present, is lodged at the Tihar jail in connection with the NIA case.

He is alleged to have received funds from FIF operators through Hawala and he and others were reported to have received money illegally from various persons, including those in Pakistan and the UAE, the ED had said earlier.

The FIF was designated as a terror organisation by the United Nations in March, 2012 and Hafiz Saeed is its "key mentor".

Stamped as a terror organisation by the Centre in August 2016, the FIF acted "like a humanitarian front doing religious and charity work only to create disguise in the minds of people and states", the ED said.

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