Mangalore woman, mother of three, held for funding Patna blasts

The Bihar Police, with help of their Karnataka counterparts, on Tuesday apprehended one woman in Mangalore on the charge of providing financial assistance to Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives through hawala transactions.

Ayesha Bano, a mother of three, was produced before a local court, which allowed the four-member team from Bihar to take her on transit remand. She will be brought to Patna on Wednesday.

Preliminary probe revealed that Ayesha was managing 50 accounts in Bihar through net-banking and real-time gross settlement. She was charged with providing financial aid to fugitive IM operative Tehsin Akhtar, prime accused in the October 27 Patna serial blasts.

The arrest of four persons in Lakhisaria led the police to Ayesha. Gopal, Vikas, Pawan and Ganesh were apprehended for their alleged involvement in financing terror outfits through hawala transactions. They were interrogated about their links with the Pakistan-based Inter Services Intelligence, which is suspected to have financed Tehsin.

The team investigating into the case found that a person identified as Ibrahim from Pakistan was issuing instructions, while Ayesha managed the bank accounts.

Ayesha, who is believed to have been deserted by her husband, was charged with transferring over Rs 1 crore through different transactions worth Rs 49,000 or less, in a bid to escape Income Tax sleuths.

The amount was remitted from abroad or other locations in the country to accounts of unsuspecting people.

The four middlemen arrested in Lakhisarai used to help poor people in opening accounts, but retained the ATM cards.

“The police have recovered 20 ATM cards and 35 passbooks from them,” said Lakhisarai Superintendent of Police Rajeev Mishra.

“They used to get 10 to 20 per cent commission for following the hawala kingpin’s instructions,” he added.

Ayesha’s name cropped up during their interrogation, following which the chief judicial magistrate of Lakhisarai issued an arrest warrant against her.

Bihar DGP Abhayanand confirmed Ayesha’s arrest in Mangalore.  “The investigation is in a preliminary stage. The financial transactions have a terror angle. Further probe will clear the air,” he said.