Lashkar’s financial wing charged under money laundering law

New Delhi, Feb 10: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Pakistan-based Falah-e-Insaniyat (FIF), considered a front for militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The agency said that a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been filed for the outfit's "involvement in money laundering through various hawala channels."

The ED said it took cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) FIR, filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) last year in September, to file its own case against the Falah-e-Insaniyat.

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 and arrested four people till now in the case.

The ED 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.

"These funds were utilised to carry out terrorist activities and create unrest in India," the ED said in a statement.

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."