NEW DELHI: Investigators have found that
Naxal leaders transfer the money they receive for perpetrating violence to family members, suggesting that the extremists may be working for personal gain than any ideology, a top police official said.
Probe agencies are now zeroing in on these “beneficiaries” in a bid to neutralise the impact of
terror funding and have started a drive to seize the assets of such Naxal leaders and their relatives.
A high-level meeting was held on Tuesday to map out the action plan against Naxal operatives and was attended by the brass of the Enforcement Directorate (
ED), headed by its director, the National Investigation Agency, in-telligence agencies and others. The meeting focused on ways to quickly share information among themselves to crack down on Naxals.
The national investigative agencies will seek the cooperation of state agencies for a coordinated and concerted effort to act against Naxals. “It has come to light, in various cases, that the Naxal leaders have transferred the money received for their ‘support’ to their family members," a senior police official told ET, requesting anonymity. “This exposes that they are working for personal gains than for any so-called ideology.”
He said that these so-called leaders transfer the funds to their relatives and trusted people only to reap personal benefits.
The ED has already attached the properties of some Naxal leaders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In Jammu & Kashmir, the NIA has taken measures to contain stone-pelters by registering terror-funding cases against them and making arrests.
The ED is proceeding against Naxal extremists in Bihar and Jharkhand. Last month, the directorate attached assets worth Rs 86 lakh of Sandeep Yadav, the alleged incharge of Madhya Zone of Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee of the CPI (Maoist).
The Bihar police has registered about 90 FIRs against Yadav and his brother figures in as many as eight cases. The two amassed wealth to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore, according to the agencies.
Earlier this month, the ED attached assets worth Rs 68 lakh of two senior Maoist leaders in Bihar in connection with a money-laundering probe against them. The brothers – Pradumn Sharma and Pramod Sharma – have over 67 FIRs registered against them. Sources said the agencies have reached out to all states with Naxal operatives and sought information about their assets.
