A Delhi court on April 17 commenced the trial
of a close aide of All Party Hurriyat Conference-Geelani
(APHC-G) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Ghulam
Mohd Bhat, and three others, for allegedly
running a hawala (illegal money transfer)
racket to fund Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)
in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The three
other accused include Mohammad Siddiq Ganai,
Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga.
The court had framed charges against all the
four accused under various sections of the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on March
3, 2012.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in
2011 had filed the charge sheet against the
four, indicting them for procuring over INR
45.7 million from Pakistan through hawala
channels within three years after 2008 for
funding the terrorist activities in the Valley.
Detailing their modus operandi, the NIA had
said Ganai developed a close relationship
with Delhi-based Raj Kumar and his brother-in-law
Rajeev Nankani and motivated them to collect
money on their behalf from hawala
operatives in New Delhi. "Between November
2008 to October 2010, Raj Kumar alone collected
Rs 2.25 crore [INR 22.5 million] in various
instalments from hawala operators here,"
the charge sheet had said.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police on January
22, 2011, had arrested Srinagar-based lawyer
Bhat, Ganai, Liloo and Dagga from J&K
on a tip-off that they were carrying hawala
money, allegedly meant for the HM. It had
also recovered INR 2.12 million 1 from them.
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