Syrian national detained in Gujarat for ‘collecting funds in name of Gaza victims’

The Crime Branch is now on the lookout for three more persons in the gang, who are on the run, even as intelligence and security agencies from Centre reached Gujarat to question him.

Police also booked a hotel in Ahmedabad for the alleged illegal stay of foreign national.

The Crime Branch had received information that a group of people were allegedly collecting huge sums of money in the name of victims of the Gaza conflict. While searching for the group, the police found a person named Ali Meghat Al-Zaher, whose identity was found suspicious and brought him to the police station.

During questioning, he allegedly told the officials that he is a shepherd and resident of Damascus, Syria. He told police that he had come to India on a tourist visa and had visited cities of different states of India.

“He had come to Ahmedabad and had been visiting various mosques, gaining sympathy by claiming he is one of the displaced persons from Gaza, and collecting money for his personal gain. He had used his command over Arabic and an old bullet wound on his chest to allegedly claim he had been injured in the war in Gaza,” the Crime Branch said in a statement.

“He also used to show videos of the alleged famine in Gaza found online, for this purpose,” said JCP Singhal.

Police said that the four men had met in Lebanon. They had travelled to India via the UAE. They reached Kolkata on July 22 and Ahmedabad on August 1. Steps are now being taken to immediately detain and deport all these four persons and blacklist them as, prima facie, they were in violation of visa regulations. Look Out Circulars (LOCs) have been issued against the other three persons.

During the investigation, the Crime Branch said it found that they had forwarded the donations they received through Hawala channels. The police are also investigating to whom these funds were sent.

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