Patna,(BiharTimes): A month after the arrest of four men from Lakhisarai in Bihar on Hawala charges to be followed by that of Ayesha Bano and her husband Zubair from Mangalore the Bihar Police is yet get any evidence linking the accused to any terror outfit or even the fund transfers to any act of terror.

According to a Times of India report from New Delhi the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing serial blasts in Bodh Gaya and Patna, has not even bothered to question the accused in custody.

According to report the Central security establishment, including the home ministry, is unhappy with the way Bihar Police has handled the case, which looks more of illegal fund transfers rather than a suspected case of terror funding.

“They have made some claims which are thin on evidence. The case should have been handled more cautiously and in a better way,” a senior home ministry official was quoted by the daily.

A senior security establishment officer said: “As yet we have not found any link of the accused to terror funding. The funds have largely come from Saudi Arabia and certain Gulf countries. Much of the money has gone to certain mosques and madarsas. It would be wrong to call them terror funding unless someone can establish that from these madarsas the money has gone to certain terror outfit. The accused have been paid commission for the transactions and are completely unaware of the use the money is being put to. Such transactions from the Gulf are common. Suspicion of the police was raised only because of telephone calls to Pakistan.”

NIA has not touched the case even though Bihar Police has claimed that it conducted the operation on an “NIA tip-off”. A senior NIA officer said: “We have nothing to do with this operation. We will look into it as and when a terror angle emerges. As of now we are not aware of any such thing.”
It needs to be recalled that on November 9, Lakhisarai police arrested four youths––Gopal Kumar Goyal, Pawan Kumar, Vikash Kumar and Ganesh Kumar––for being part of this alleged racket.

It is upon their version that the Lakhisarai Police went to Mangalore to arrest Ayesha Bano and her husband Zubair, charging them along with Mohammad Faiyaz and Mohammad Kismet Ansari alias Dawood Ansari, who are on the run, of being the kingpins of the racket.

Police recovered dozens of ATM cards, passbooks and SIM cards from the accused and claimed that they were in constant touch with one Ibrahim Khan in Pakistan. It also found evidence of over Rs 1.5 crore transacted through the accounts held by the accused in the past few months alone. Most of the accused, including the Mangalore couple, are poor, the report quoting sources said.

Though Bihar Police has officially maintained that it has not got any evidence linking the accused to terror outfits, the state DGP Abhayanand was quoted in the media as saying “terror funding” in the case could not be ruled out. Media reports quoting police sources have repeatedly mentioned “ISI-links” and “IM funding” in context of the case.