NIA attaches assets worth more than Rs 20 crore in left-wing extremism cases in Jharkhand

Striking a blow to a funding source of leftwing extremism the National Investigation Agency NIA has attached 152 bank accounts and special term deposit receipts and a mutual fund account containing more than Rs 20 crore belonging to a firm and its different partnersThis is the largestever amount attached by the federal agency in cases pertaining to the leftwing extremism an official of the agency saidA total of 152 bank accounts including 124 special term deposit receipts and one SBI Mutual Fund account containing more than Rs 2065 crore belonging to Ms Santosh Construction and its different partners were attached under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act a spokesperson of the NIA saidThe official said these accounts had earlier been frozen under the provisions of the CrPC but have been found to be proceeds of terrorism during investigations warranting their attachment under the UAPAAlso readAAP alleges scam in coal mining by Adani Enterprise demands probe by central agenciesInvestigations had revealed that the accused Mrityunjay Kumar Singh alias Sonu Singh one of the partners of Ms Santosh Construction had a close nexus with top CPIMaoist cadres He had provided cash to Ravindra Ganjhu a regional committee member of CPIMaoist for furtherance of Maoist activitiesiquest the spokesperson saidThe NIA said these facts have come to light during the investigation of the case pertaining to the attack on a police control room PCR vehicle of Chandwa Police Station and killing of four police personnel and looting of their arms ammunition on November 22 2019 at Lukaiya More in Latehar district of Jharkhand by the armed cadres of CPI Maoist led by GanjhuA day before this incident at Beerjangha forest Singh met Ganjhu and gave him Rs 2 lakh which was used for preparation and execution of the attack NIA had taken over the investigation of this case in June 2020iquest the spokesperson saidIn October 2020 the NIA had seized over Rs 25 lakh from his house which was also found to be proceeds of terrorism and therefore attached in April 2022Investigations have shown that Singh continued to fund the CPI Maoist and their activities even after the Lukaiya More incident He gave Rs 5 lakh to couriers of Ganjhu namely Baijnath Ganjhu Rajesh Ganjhu and Kunwar Ganjhu in January 2020 The couriers were intercepted with this money and a case was registered at Chandwa Police Station Investigation of this case has been transferred to NIA as welliquest the spokesperson saidDuring investigations the bank accounts had been frozen by the NIA between February 2021 and February 2023Ms Santosh Construction initially moved the Jharkhand High Court by way of a writ petition for unfreezing the six major bank accounts but the court dismissed its petition in August 2022 It also filed a plea before the Supreme Court which was also dismissed on January 3This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever