NEW DELHI, Sept 28:
In a rare case of India impounding foreign assets accumulated through terror funds, probe agencies will soon be taking possession of Nepal-based bank accounts and immovable properties allegedly operated by the chief of a prominent Northeast insurgent group, ‘Black Widow’.
In culmination of an over two-year long diplomatic and legal cooperation between investigation and enforcement agencies of India and Nepal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recently got the nod of the neighbouring country to attach the assets of Niranjan Hojai alias Nirmal Rai, the ‘commander-in-chief’ of insurgent outfit Dima Halam Daogah-Jewel (Black Widow), which has been operating in Assam for many years now.
The agency claimed that these were created by Hojai after allegedly laundering the proceeds of terrorist activities perpetrated in the Northeast of India.
After a series of exchanges of crime dossiers between the two countries, sources said, Kathmandu has helped a team of Indian officials in identifying the alleged assets of Hojai in that country which are essentially a house in the Sunsari area and a few bank accounts with some “substantial” funds in them.
ED officials, the sources said, were able to satisfy their Nepali counterparts that its money laundering case (registered in 2010) against Hojai was water-tight and the attachment of these assets would help it crack down on a major terror financing network, especially at a time when India is looking at all avenues to curb and dismantle instances of black money and illegal funds stashed abroad.
Nepal, the sources added, was also sent Letters Rogatory (judicial request) sometime back in this case under the stringent criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Indian investigation agencies see this case as a rare opportunity of nailing down crime money kept abroad and derived from the criminal proceeds of terror activities carried out in the country.
In only two earlier cases, ED had got success and recovered black money, generated through money laundering, from Australia and Switzerland a few years ago.
The sources said ED will soon be conducting attachment proceedings in this case and it will then be able to take the possession of these assets based in a foreign land.
The ED registered a criminal FIR in this case after taking cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) complaint against Hojai, his outfit, and a few others. Hojai is currently out on interim bail in Assam and it is renewed every six months after an NOC is obtained from the NIA.
‘Black Widow’ is a breakaway faction of ethnic Dimasa insurgent outfit (DHD) in Assam which claims to be fighting for safeguarding the identity of Dimasa tribe by creating a separate homeland for them within the constitutional framework.
The homeland proposes to include Dimasa-dominated areas like North Cachar Hills, Cachar and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam and parts of Dimapur district in Nagaland. (PTI)
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