NIA files supplementary charge-sheet in Jharkhand’s PLFI terror funding case

Searches have been conducted at different places and properties worth Rs 90 lakh and other incriminating documents have been seized, the official said. The first supplementary charge-sheet in the case was filed on October 21 last year against 10 arrested people and one absconding accused – Dinesh Gope, the NIA spokesperson said.

The NIA on Friday filed a supplementary charge-sheet against five people, including the wives of an absconding naxalite, for allegedly trying to legitimise extortion money using dubious companies for banned Jharkhand naxal group PLFI, an official said. The case pertains to a seizure of Rs 25.38 lakh in demonetised currency notes that belonged to the self-styled chief of the People's Liberation of India (PLFI), Dinesh Gope, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.

The notes were seized when they were about to be deposited in a bank in Ranchi on November 10, 2016, by his associates after demonetisation, the official of the NIA said. Shakuntala Kumari, Hira Devi, Jaiprakash Singh Bhuiyan, Amit Kumar and Fuleshwar Gope along with three companies set up to channelise the "terror funds" have been named in the charge-sheet filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the UA(P) Act and CLA Act, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

The charge-sheer has been filed before a special NIA court in Ranchi, he said. Kumari and Devi are wives of Dinesh Gope of the PLFI a proscribed naxal organisation in Jharkhand, the spokesperson said.

The state police arrested four people in the case and filed a charge-sheet on January 9, 2017. On January 18, 2018, the NIA took up the case and arrested six more people. Searches have been conducted at different places and properties worth Rs 90 lakh and other incriminating documents have been seized, the official said.

The first supplementary charge-sheet in the case was filed on October 21 last year against 10 arrested people and one absconding accused – Dinesh Gope, the NIA spokesperson said. During further investigation, Kumari and Devi were arrested on January 30 and Dinesh Gope's associates -- Bhuiyan and Kumar -- were arrested on March 2 and Fuleshwar Gope was arrested on July 13 this year, he said.

Kumari formed three dubious companies in partnership with Sumant Kumar, who has been arrested, and an unregistered company in her own name on the directions of absconding charge-sheeted accused Dinesh Gope, the NIA official said. Separately, Hira had also formed a dubious company in partnership with Fuleshwar Gope, the official said.

These companies were formed for channelizing extorted levy amount into legitimate means by depositing money in bank accounts of the dubious companies for investment in properties and vehicles, and for furthering the terrorist activities of the PLFI, he said. The five accused conspired with Dinesh Gope and deposited or transferred huge amounts of extorted money in the individual bank accounts of Kumari and Devi for purchasing properties and for their personal use, the official said.

The NIA has attached their bank accounts, along with closing balance, amounting to Rs 19,93,817 and two cars, worth approximately Rs 25 lakh as "Proceeds of Terrorism", the NIA official said. Further investigation in the case is underway.