Special Correspondent
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India informed Bangladesh investigators that it had uncovered links of banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to laundering money from Khulna to Burdwan in West Bengal.
The NIA claimed it extracted vital information while interrogating JMB top leaders - Rezaul Karim and Shahnoor Alam- regarding their money transfer from Bangladesh to India. According to NIA, the total flight of money across the border is estimated at around Indian Rs 68.5 crore (Taka 85.80 crore). It was gathered that an amount of Rs 75 crore was plannned to be sent to a nationalised bank in Burdwan. Sources said there are indications that some top officials of a popular bank in Bangladesh have links with these businessmen in Kolkata who have also hands in the Sardha scam. A leader of Trinamool Congress in Kolkata who had kept a big amount in his account in a nationalised bank withdrew the same day the money that reached JMB's Burdwan cell. However, the investigators said they need to probe further to ascertain the links between Trinamool Congress leader and JMB operatives in Burdwan. Bangladesh counterpart of the joint investigation has already interrogated the bank officials and the statement of accounts to identify the culprits.
A correspondent based in Kolkata of the influential daily Times of India wrote on Tuesday that the NIA investigators had identified two persons Abdul Noor in Bangladesh and Mahmood Seesh in West Bengal - who had paired up with Rezaul, Shahnoor and Kausar. Noor, suspected to be a key operative of the outfit in Bangladesh, was the man who carried cash across the border in tranches, says the Indian newspaper.
Kausar has been identified as JMB top operative Boma (bomb) Mizan. With JMB top operatives Haath Kata Nasirullah and Suman also met Mizan in West Bengal regularly. It now appears that phone calls from Khagragarh at Burdwan to Metiabruz and Chattabazar under city's port area were made to ensure the flow of money through hawala channels. The Bangladesh investigators of counter-terrorism unit Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said they are seriously looking into the issue.