Bihar funds transfer racket: Woman picked up in Mangalore,police don’t rule out terror angle

Bihar DGP Abhayanand said investigators had found evidence of Ayesha’s “Pakistan links”,and though no clear connection had so far emerged to any other terror outfit,he did not rule out the possibility of the operation being used for “terror funding”.

Late on Friday night,police in Lakhisarai,about 125 km east of Patna,arrested four men — Gopal Goyal,Ganesh Prasad,Vikas Kumar and Pawan Gupta — for forgery and criminal conspiracy after several ATM and SIM cards and bank passbooks were seized from them.

Police said the men had “ISI links”,and in their FIR named Ayesha and Lakhisarai residents Mohammad Faiyaz and Mohammad Kismet Ansari alias Dawood Ansari as the leaders of the racket. Police claimed to have proof of transactions of over Rs 1.5 crore through 35 bank accounts in less than two months. They said Pakistani numbers had been found in the phones of the four accused,and named “Ibrahim” as their Pakistan-based controller.

Abhayanand said the Lakhisarai police had seized a dozen SIM cards in Ayesha’s home,and collected evidence that she had been in touch with numbers in Pakistan,and had been involved in hawala transactions.

“We have been also seeking help from the Financial Intelligence Unit on the hawala transactions. Interrogation of Ayesha may give more leads. We have also been studying RTGS (real time gross settlement) transactions done through banks,” the DGP said.

Police sources said the illegal money transfer racket in Lakhisarai was started by Dawood Ansari along with one Faizan,who was killed in a road accident some two months ago.

The sources said Ayesha had roped hundreds of youths into the racket on the promise of a 10-20 per cent cut of the transaction. Local operatives in several states were encouraged to lure more and more “gullible” people to open bank accounts,which were then used for illegal transactions through ATM withdrawals and RTGS or NEFT (national electronic funds transfer) as directed by Ayesha or the Pakistan-based Ibrahim,the sources said.

Dawood Ansari,who is absconding,owns shops that sell clothes,mobile phones and footwear in Lakhisarai. His sudden coming into money was apparently noticed in the town. According to police sources,Ansari recruited over 100 youths from Lakhisarai,Munger,Jamui and Khagaria in Bihar and Dhanbad in Jharkhand in less than two years.

Gopal Goyal,Pawan Gupta and Ganesh Prasad too have allegedly acquired visible signs of prosperity such as new homes and flashy vehicles over the last couple of years.

Ayesha Bano and Zubair do not,however,appear to have attracted much attention among neighbours in Mangalore,who seem to have considered them a regular couple with three children. They had relied on financing schemes by the government to build their home,and neighbours attributed some recent signs of prosperity to the fact that Zubair had worked in the Gulf for three years.

\Ayesha,also known as Asha before she married Zubair,hailed from Madikeri in Karnataka,neighbours said. They said the couple came to Panjimogeru in Mangalore 12 years ago and lived on rent before moving into their own house ‘Ayesha Manzil’ recently. Zubair,a former beedi roller,had gone to a Gulf country for a few years while Ayesha had stayed back with their children.

“Zubair was a quiet sort who did not interact much with neighbours,but Ayesha was social. It is difficult to imagine she was involved in anti-national activities,” a neighbour of the couple said.

The Mangalore Police claimed to have played no part in the arrests,even though the Bihar Police had apparently sought their assistance.

With ENS,Bangalore