SIT probing foreign funds misuse case says money used to build flats for Rohingyas, fund Maulavis on Nepal border

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Crime, DS Chauhan said that Sheikh, who is in custody along with Mohammad Umar Gautam of Indian Da’wah Centre, has told police that he had attended a lecture series of Naik. Sheikh became acquainted with Gautam through Nabipur-native and UK-based Abdullah Fefdawala, who is emerging as the biggest benefactor of AFMI trust as well as a link to many of the contacts of the two accused, he said.

Police say that it was Fefdawala, approximately aged 55 years, who introduced Sheikh to Gautam in 2017 at a meeting in his house in Nabipur in Bharuch. Thereafter, the accused met multiple times in Vadodara to discuss anti-CAA protests, in presence of other accused, whom the UP ATS has arrested.

Chauhan said, “Sheikh was impressed to meet Gautam through Fefdawala in 2017. Thereafter, the accused also met at the residence of another acquaintance in Navayard as well as a hotel in Sayajigunj, where even Kalim Siddiqui (another accused of the UP ATS case) was present. They discussed the anti-CAA protests being held in Delhi.”

“Sheikh has told us that Fefdawala routed money through hawala, with help of three businessmen in Mumbai via Dubai. Some of the money was used to construct 400 flats for displaced Rohingyas and Bangladeshi Muslims around the same time as they funded the anti-CAA protests in Delhi,” Chauhan told The Indian Express.

Chauhan added that Fefdawala has emerged as a key link between the accused and the beneficiaries of the illegal sums of money. Chauhan said, “Sheikh has admitted to most of the fund misuse that we have questioned him about so far. He has told us that he regularly gave money to two local Maulvis — Abdullah and Zakaria — on the Indo-Nepal border as well as a man named Shabbir in Kashmir, who is a contact of Fefdawala. We are now delving into the details of the nature of work for which they were given funds.”
The SIT has already issued summons to Fefdawala at his Nabipur residence as well as in the UK, asking him to appear before the SIT on Tuesday. While police have not confirmed that Fefdawala has already acknowledged the summons, Chauhan said that the SIT was closing in on the UK-based businessman.

“We have an incriminating video of Fefdawala addressing a gathering of affluent members of the community, seeking financial assistance to help Muslims in India. He is seen making inciting statements related to the 2002 Gujarat riots and other alleged atrocities… We are probing the source of these funds,” Chauhan said.

Among the 14 foreign trusts, who deposited about Rs 19 crore into the AFMI Charitable trust since 2017, the Gujarati Muslim Association had transferred Rs 7.44 crore while Fefdawala’s Majlis-e-Al-Fala Trust has transferred Rs 2.06 crore. The SIT has also issued summons to Mustafa Thanawala, a businessman based in Dubai, who is accused of helping route the Hawala funds to Sheikh. Another summon has also been issued to a Dubai-based man, Kiden Johar Dhoklawala, to probe into the hawala transactions.

The Vadodara SIT, which has also appointed a professional Chartered Accountant to track the money trail and accounts, has also written to the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department and the Ministry of External Affairs to launch a simultaneous probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and tax evasions by the trust. The Vadodara police has secured custody of Sheikh and Gautam until Saturday.