Two Police Arrested in Jammu Terror Funding Case

Officials said on Wednesday that the Special Investigation Agency (SIA) had detained two additional people, one of whom was a police officer, on suspicion of being a member of a transnational drug trafficking organization that finances terrorism in our country. The number of defendants in the case has increased to 17, according to the arrests of Selection grade constable Saif-ud-din of Jammu and former sarpanch Farooq Ahmad Jungal of Uri in the Baramulla district of north Kashmir.

They said that after looking into a hawala case involving former minister and Nature-Mankind Friendly Party chairman Jatinder Singh, also known as Babu Singh, SIA discovered the network.

Singh was detained in April 2022 after the seizure of Rs 6.90 lakh in hawala money in Jammu by one of his employees, Mohammad Shareef Shah, a native of Kokernag in south Kashmir.

A charge sheet against twelve defendants, including the former minister in question, has already been submitted by the SIA. Three absconders are in Pakistan, while nine accused are being held in Central Jail.

Tuesday saw a SIA raid on a police officer’s home in the Belicharana neighborhood of this city. The authorities said that certain electronic devices were taken into custody. They also stated that more investigation is ongoing to break up the network of drug suppliers who finance anti-national actions.

Additionally, according to the authorities, the policeman was nabbed with 200 grams of heroin from the Shahpur Kandi region of Pathankot and was charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The police officer’s and the previous sarpanch’s involvement became apparent when Mohd Sharief Chechi, a prominent accused who is also a Uri resident, was apprehended in September of last year.

The official said that once SIA took over the case’s investigation, it discovered the accused’s methods of operation, including Chechi’s practice of obtaining drugs from beyond the Line of Control in order to raise money for terrorism.

Following Shah’s arrest, the case was first filed at Jammu’s Police Station Gandhi Nagar on the basis of specific allegations that the former minister and he were carrying out subversive activities in Jammu, funded by Pakistan’s ISI and its agents, according to the officials.