In a massive action against gangsters, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday attached five properties of gangsters in Delhi and Haryana in connection with its probe into the multi-state terrorist-gangster-drug smuggler network case.
An NIA spokesperson in the national capital said that the agency attached four properties owned by members of organised crime syndicates in Haryana and one in Delhi.
The official said that these attachments and seizures have been done in the wake of the recent searches conducted at 76 locations linked with gangsters and their associates in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi- NCR in February 2023.
The NIA had registered cases against three major organised crime syndicates or gangs under UAPA in August 2022 who had spread their mafia-style criminal networks in the northern States and were involved in many sensational crimes, such as the murder of popular singer Sidhu Moosewala and largescale extortions from businessmen and professionals.
The official said that their involvement was found in the killing of Maharashtra builder, Sanjay Biyani, and Sandeep Nangal Ambia, an international Kabbadi organizer in Punjab.
Many of these conspiracies were found to have been masterminded from abroad, including Pakistan and Canada, or by leaders of organised criminal syndicates based inside jails, officials said.
“The Properties attached were found to be ‘proceeds of terrorism’, which were used for hatching terror conspiracies and execution of crimes,” the anti-terror probe agency official said.
The NIA attached properties of Asif Khan in Delhi, a House and agricultural land in three different locations belonging to Surender Singh aka Chiku in the Mahendragarh District of Haryana.
“Khan was providing weapons and logistics support to the gangsters, including a safe haven. Surender is a close associate of Naresh Sethi, Anil Chippi, and Raju Basodi, notorious mafia leaders, who were earlier arrested by the NIA. He had been involved in multiple criminal cases of murder, kidnapping, and extortion. He has been instrumental in investing the ‘proceeds of terror’ and crime in real estate and other businesses,” the official said.
The official further said that the NIA will carry out more action against the mafias and the criminal syndicates to disrupt and dismantle their terror networks and their support infrastructure and to attach and seize their properties, which have been derived from ‘proceeds of terrorism and crime’.
The NIA had arrested several notorious criminals including Lawrence Bishnoi in connection with the case.
On Friday, the NIA had also attached over 20 crore rupees in CPI (Maoist) case, the largest amount ever to be attached by the agency in an LWE case.
The NIA has been working to deliver a major blow to the funding of gangsters as well as Left-Wing Extremism.
The NIA on Friday attached 152 bank accounts (including 124 STDRs) and one SBI Mutual Fund account containing a total of Rs 20.65 lakh belonging to Santosh Construction, and its different partners.
“These accounts had earlier been frozen but have been found to be ‘proceeds of terrorism’ during investigations warranting their ‘attachment’ under UA (P) Act,” the official said.
“Investigations by the NIA had revealed that the accused Mrityunjay Kumar Singh aka Sonu Singh, one of the partners of Santosh Construction, had a close nexus with top CPI (Maoist) cadres. He had provided cash funds to Maoist cadre Ravindra Ganjhu, a Regional Committee Member of CPI (Maoist) for the furtherance of Maoist activities,” the official said.