JAMMU, Sept 24: The State Investigation Agency of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday filed a charge sheet in a court in Jammu against former minister Jatinder Singh, alias Babu Singh, and two others in a terror-funding case.
The agency also conducted searches at multiple locations across Kashmir Valley as part of an investigation into financing of terrorist activities through proceeds of drug smuggling from Pakistan.
“SIA Kashmir continued its action against narcotics dealers by conducting searches at multiple locations across the valley. The SIA conducted extensive searches at different locations in the districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Kupwara,” a police spokesman said. On the charge sheet, the agency said Singh, the chairman of Nature-Mankind Friendly Global Party, was arrested on April 9, ten days after he went underground following the arrest of his worker Mohammad Shareef Shah, a resident of south Kashmir’s Kokernag, along with Rs 6.90 lakh hawala money in Jammu.
Shah had revealed that he was engaged by Singh, a resident of Kathua district, to collect the money, intended to be used for the anti-national activities, from Srinagar. A spokesperson of the SIA said the charge sheet against the former minister, Shah and Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Mohd Hussain Khateeb, hailing from Bhaderwah in Doda district, was filed in the court of the third additional session judge, Jammu.
“Babu Singh was in touch with the terrorists of proscribed Hizbul Mujahideen outfit and separatists of JKLF, an unlawful association. These inimical entities had sent this terror fund from Pakistan through their associates for Babu Singh’s party. The vision of this party…was to make J&K, PoK and Gilgit Baltistan as one independent country by making a condominium of Pakistan and India, for having joint control over currency, external affairs and finance,” the SIA said. In the investigation, the spokesperson said it has been revealed that the former minister was in contact with Khateeb over encrypted social media applications and had clandestinely visited Dubai for arranging funds.
“Shah was designated as secretary of this party who received these funds at Kashmir through unknown person and travelled to Jammu to hand over these funds to Babu Singh and this fund was arranged by Khateeb, who is HM terrorist operating from Pakistan,” the official said. The SIA said the investigation has established that Babu Singh was conducting online meetings and interviews with adversary and in his online address he has compared a terrorist, Maqbool Bhat, with Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev and has termed Maqbool Bhat “freedom fighter and martyr” who laid down his life for the independence of Jammu and Kashmir.
“In one of such online interviews Babu Singh has challenged and threatened the Government of India to desist from further breaking Jammu and Kashmir, this reference is in context of abrogation of Article 370 (in August 2019), the spokesperson said. The official said the association of Babu Singh with Khateeb and other cadres of Hizbul Mujahideen operating from Pakistan has also been established in the investigation.
“Anti-national and highly inflammatory content has been recovered by SIA from his mobile phone which establishes his intention to damage and threaten the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India,” the spokesperson said. On the searches against narco-terrorism, the agency spokesperson said, “Equipped with search warrants…house searches were conducted in connection with investigation of case FIR No. 17/2022 u/s 8,21,29 NDPS Act, 13,17,18,39, 40 Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 121 and 120-B, 121, 121-A IPC of Police Station CI-SIA Kashmir.”
He said this case was registered on receipt of reliable information that a group of persons working as overground workers for different proscribed terrorist organisations are involved in border smuggling of narcotic drugs and substance and the proceeds thereof are passed on to the terrorist organisations for furtherance of terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. During the investigation, it surfaced that proscribed terrorist organisations across the border in order to fuel the terrorist activities in J-K are adopting various means and methods to provide logistic support to terrorists here, he said.
The spokesman said one of the ways and means is to send consignments of heroin, brown sugar and other contraband substances worth lakhs of rupees and smuggle the same to valley through their overground workers, conduits, supporters and other terrorist sympathisers. During the searches, incriminating material including digital weighing machine, cell phones, electronic gadgets, important documents and bank accounts were seized, he said. (Agencies)
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