NIA probing money trail of Kashmir violence
20 Aug 2016
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has launched a preliminary enquiry into suspicious inflows of funds into several bank accounts in Jammu and Kashmir in the last few months, ahead of the start of widespread violent protests in the state over the killing of a militant.
NIA said it will approach banks and financial institution based in Jammu and Kashmir for assistance in order to prepare a list of local residents and entities whose bank accounts have shown "suspicious transactions" in the last two months.
"Based on technical inputs, information has been collected that certain bank accounts in J&K have seen huge inflow and outflow of funds during the last few months", reports quoted a senior NIA officer as saying.
The report also pointed to information ''indicating flow of funds into and disbursement there from the bank accounts of some persons of interest in J&K.''
NIA has registered a preliminary enquiry in the case in order to verify the details and to ascertain the end users of the flow of funds. NIA will submit its findings to ministry of home affairs in due course.
The inquiry has been instituted in the backdrop of the continuing violence in the valley ever since the shooting down of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter by the security forces on 8 July. The violence has so far claimed at least 67 lives while over 2,000 have been injured in the clashes with security personnel in the last 40 days.
NIA sleuths are looking into three key areas, including cross border trade, as also the nature of fund flows and the accounts or persons receiving such cash – both in deposits and disbursals.
These sransactions can take place in many ways, including routine bank transaction where in an individual is chosen and money transferred into his bank, and the routes as also the funding that is done using trade.
Banks, however, are obliged to share information as per section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and 43F of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).