The agency on Saturday said a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been filed against the outfit for its "involvement in money laundering through various hawala channels".
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Pakistan-based outfit Falah-e-Insaniyat (FIF) — a front of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The agency on Saturday said a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been filed against the outfit for its "involvement in money laundering through various hawala channels".
FIF is a Lahore-based organisation established by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and acts as a front of the LeT. It was founded in 1990 by UN designated global wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who is also the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
The agency said it took cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) FIR filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in September last year.
The development comes within a week of India's Note Verbale to Pakistan against Saeed's recent participation at 'Kashmir Solidarity Day' rally in Lahore. The note read, "The ministry registers its strong protest at the continued use of Pakistan controlled territory by extremist and terrorist elements to freely propagate and promote violence and terror against India."
Note verbale is a form of protest a country gives to another country when it annoyed by something or some issue that undermines it in the country concerned.
FIF is also no longer in the list of Pakistan's banned organizations. Following international pressure and the US's decision of freezing military and economic aids to Pakistan in early 2018, former president Mamnoon Hussain had signed an ordinance amending the country's Anti-Terrorism Act to include entities banned by the UN Security Council, including terror organisations such as JuD, FIF, Lashkar-e-Toiba, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
According to ED, the NIA has carried out searches in this case in the past and has seized over four dozen SIM cards, phones and Rs 1.56 crore (suspected) cash, Nepali currency worth Rs 43,000, 14 mobiles phones, five pen drives and other incriminating documents. Four persons have been arrested till now in the case.
The agency said one of the arrested accused in the case, Delhi-based Mohammed Salman, was in "regular touch with a Dubai-based Pakistan national, who in turn was connected with the deputy chief of FIF."Salman is alleged to have received funds from FIF operators through hawala and he and other persons were reported to have received money illegally from various persons of Pakistan and UAE among others, the agency said.
Besides Salman, the NIA has also arrested FIF hawala conduit Mohammad Salim aka Mama, a resident of central Delhi's Daryaganj, and Srinagar-based hawala courier Sajjad Abdul Wani.
"These funds were utilised to carry out terrorist activities and create unrest in India," the ED said in a statement. The US also designated FIF as a terrorist entity in 2010. It is a front-end organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terror organisation proscribed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). It was founded in 1990 by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. To date, four accused have been arrested by the NIA in connection with the case.
The agency said its probe will "establish money trail and identify proceeds of crime that are suspected to be generated out of the criminal activities.
Seized So Far
According to ED, the NIA has so far seized over four dozen SIM cards, phones and Rs 1.56 crore cash, Nepali currency worth Rs 43,000, 14 mobiles phones, five pen drives and other incriminating documents.
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