The UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on 25 March arrested 10 people suspected to be involved in terror funding activities. The accused were identified as Sanjay Saroj (31) and Neeraj Mishra (25) of Pratapgarh, Sahil Masih (27) of Lucknow, Mukesh Prasad (24) of Bihar, Nikhil Rai alias Mushraf Ansari of Kushinagar, Ankur Rai alias Sushil Rai of Azamgarh, Dayanand Yadav, Naseem Ahmed and Naeem Arshad of Gorakhpur, and Uma Pratap Singh alias Saurabh of Madhya Pradesh, a media report said on 26 March.
Police claim to have recovered Rs 52 lakh in cash, documents, including passbooks of fake accounts, and other equipment from them. “Court has sent them to judicial custody. Uma Pratap will be brought to Lucknow on transit remand,” the report said citing IG, ATS, Asim Arun.
According to ATS officials, investigation following the arrest of three alleged ISI operatives T Lal, Satwindar and Dadu, led them to a man named Balram from Madhya Pradesh. He was arrested last year. “Further investigation revealed that Sanjay Saroj and Uma Pratap were in touch with a handler in Pakistan,” said Arun.
Preliminary probe, he said, revealed that the handler asked the accused to open accounts under fake names to transfer money. “The Indian agents used to get 10 to 20 per cent commission for this. Transactions worth over Rs 1 crore by the accused have been detected so far,” said the IG.