The National Investigation Agency on Monday conducted raids at eight locations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts in connection with the November 10 Delhi blast, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.
The central agency raided the homes of Adeel Ahmad Rather in Kulgam and Muzamil Shakeel Ganai at Koil village in Pulwama, The Indian Express quoted officials as saying. The homes of Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay in Shopian and Amir Rashid at Samboora village in Pulwama were also raided.
All four men had been arrested in connection with an alleged terror module, which also included Umar Nabi, the doctor who is believed to have been driving the car that exploded near the Red Fort metro station in Delhi on November 10. The blast killed 13 persons.
Nabi was a key person in the terror network spanning Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, according to reports.
Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Haryana’s Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Rather and Ganai, also doctors, were among those arrested in the case at the time.
Rashid and Wagay were arrested after the blast.
The raids came after the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday carried out inspections at mosques and madrasas as part of a crackdown on “individuals and networks associated with terrorist organisations”.
Al-Falah group chairperson sent to 14-day judicial custody
On Monday, a Delhi court sent Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui, the chairperson of the Al-Falah group, to 14-day judicial custody in a money-laundering case linked to alleged fraudulent accreditation claims and financial irregularities at the group’s educational institutions, PTI reported.
The Al-Falah Medical College in Faridabad, which is owned by the Al-Falah group, has been under scrutiny in the investigation linked to the Delhi blast. The college is part of Al-Falah University.
On November 18, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Siddiqui in the money-laundering case. A day later, he was sent to the agency’s custody for 13 days.
On Monday, Additional Sessions Judge Sheetal Chaudhary Pradhan sent him to judicial custody till December 15.
The Delhi Police has alleged that the key suspects in the Delhi blast, including Nabi, who was a faculty member, used a room on the Al-Falah Medical College campus to plan logistics for transporting ammonium nitrate for multiple blasts in the National Capital Region.
The vehicle used in the blast had been parked inside the campus for nearly 20 days, the police said.
Siddiqui, who has also been the chancellor of the Al-Falah University since 2014, was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after investigators examined material seized during searches conducted on November 18.
The Enforcement Directorate’s case is based on two first information reports filed by the Delhi Police Crime Branch, which alleged that the Al-Falah University had falsely claimed accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council and misrepresented its eligibility under the University Grants Commission Act.
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council is an autonomous body under the University Grants Commission that assesses and accredits higher educational institutions such as colleges and universities to determine their “quality status”.
The University Grants Commission has said that the Al-Falah University is recognised only as a state private university and has never been eligible for central grants.
Also read: How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot
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