ED Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Terror Funding and Infiltration Network

The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids across five states in India as part of a money laundering probe tied to terror funding and illegal immigration. The investigation, sparked by an FIR from the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad, has unveiled a complex financial network involving charitable trusts and clandestine transactions.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched extensive searches across 13 locations in West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Maharashtra as part of an ongoing investigation into a significant money laundering case. The case is linked to allegations of terror funding and an illegal infiltration network, with raids commencing early Thursday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Key sites of interest for the ED's Lucknow zonal office, working closely with state police, included New Delhi's Batla House and Madanpur Khadar; Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh; Raigarh in Maharashtra; and several areas in West Bengal such as South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Kolkata, and Murshidabad. Institutions like Sun Shine Health and Social Welfare Society in Delhi and Kabirbag Millat Academy in West Bengal, along with individual suspects, were subject to extensive searches under ECIR No. ECIR/LKZO/14/2024.

The case arises from an FIR by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), concerning a syndicate allegedly involved in smuggling Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals into India. Officials revealed a sophisticated financial network involving charitable trusts reportedly receiving substantial foreign funding and channeling these through layered transactions, mule accounts, and forged documentation to promote illegal activities.