NIA custody for 9 held in Kashmir terror funding case

New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS) A court here on Wednesday sent nine persons, arrested in the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case, to NIA custody till November 21.

During in-camera proceedings, District Judge Poonam Bamba allowed the National Investigation Agency to quiz the accused after the agency sought their custody to unearth the entire conspiracy.

The NIA said the interrogation of the accused was necessary to find out the source of money and how converted currency was to be sent to Kashmir and other parts of the country.

Digital documents were being analysed and reports awaited from forensic laboratory, the agency said.

The NIA said it wanted to probe the involvement of others, including bank officials trying to help them convert the demonetised notes into legal currency.

The court allowed the NIA plea, observing that the agency has to confront the accused with facts that have emerged during its investigation.

The probe agency told the court that one of the accused admitted they had failed to convert the demonetised currency during the period set by the government.

The gang members were working in converting demonetised notes into legal currency in connivance with certain bank officials, the agency said.

The agency said it is trying to identify other accused.

The NIA on Tuesday seized nearly Rs 36.5 crore in demonetised currency and arrested nine persons on Jai Singh Road near Connaught Place in its ongoing probe into the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case.

Those held were Pradeep Chauhan, 47, Bhagwan Singh, 54, Vinod Shreedhar Shetty, 47, Shahnawaz Mir, 45, Deepak Toprani, 60, Majid Yousuf Sofi, 27, Ejajul Hassan, 38, Umar Mushtaq Dar, 27, and Jaswinder Singh, 53.

Three of them hail from Jammu and Kashmir, two from Delhi, two from Mumbai and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Nagpur.

With these arrests, the total number of arrests in the terror funding has reached 19.