NIA arrests man for alleged links with LeT

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a man hailing from Bihar in the national capital for his alleged links with Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT). Alam is the fourth person to be arrested by the NIA in the case which was registered in December last year following the arrest of Abdul Nayeem Sheikh, a resident of Maharashtra.

The accused was produced before a designated court, which remanded him in two days’ police custody.

The other two arrested in the case are Dhannu Raja, a resident of Gopalganj in Bihar, and Touseef Ahmed Malik, a resident of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to a senior official of the NIA, Alam had facilitated and provided logistic, financial support and shelter to Shaikh, who was an active cadre of LeT, a proscribed terrorist organisation, and visited and established bases in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir on the advice of his handler based in Pakistan.

Mahfooz also facilitated raising, receiving and collecting fund by Shaikh through International Money Transfer Services such as Western Union Money Transfer by providing his identity documents. The funds were to be later used for carrying out terrorist activities by Shaikh Abdul Nayeem, said the official. His interrogation led to raids by the NIA at various places in Muzaffarnagar, UP, on two Hawala operators Dinesh Garg and Adesh Kumar Jain, said the official. During the shop and residence search of Garg, the team seized around Rs 15 Lakh in cash, two currency note counting machines, one Indian-made pistol.