The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided several locations across five states in a case linked to a money laundering investigation involving terror funding and an illegal infiltration network. The agency carried out searches at 13 premises across West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Lucknow zonal office of the central agency.
The case, according to officials, stems from the 2024 Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) FIR related to an organised syndicate allegedly involved in facilitating illegal infiltration of Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals into India.
Among places searched by the ED's Lucknow zonal office team in close coordination with state police are Batla House and Madanpur Khadar in New Delhi; Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh; Raigarh in Maharashtra; South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Kolkata and Murshidabad in West Bengal. Sun Shine Health and Social Welfare Society in Madanpur Khadar, Kabirbag Millat Academy in North 24 Parganas, Harora Al-Jamiatul Islamia Darul Uloom are among the institutions alongwith some individual suspects, are being searched by the ED team in connection with ECIR No. ECIR/LKZO/14/2024.
The raids were part of a broader strategy to dismantle the syndicates involved in arranging forged Indian identity documents and aiding their rehabilitation and settlement in various parts of the country.
The ATS probe found a “deep-rooted” financial network involving certain charitable trusts and entities allegedly receiving substantial foreign contributions and diverting the same through multiple bank accounts, mule accounts and layered transactions to facilitate illegal activities. The authorities then hinted at the use of cash withdrawals and small monetary transfers to suspected individuals.
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