India’s premier anti-terror National Investigation Agency (NIA) has “forfeited to state” the properties of aides of a proscribed Khalistan militants, an official statement said on Thursday.
The NIA disclosed that an NIA Special Court “forfeited the seized property of four aides” of proscribed terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda.
These aides have been identified as Gurpreet Singh, Amandeep Singh, Parminder Singh and Bhupinder Singh.
“In the instant case, NIA Special Court has approved the terror agency’s application seeking the forfeiture of the property, including INR 7,80,000 ($9,399) in cash and a Toyota Innova car, which was used by the accused for transporting arms, ammunition, explosives and narcotics across India,” the NIA said.
The anti-terror agency said that the properties constituted “proceeds of terrorism”, in accordance with the anti-terror legislation Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
“This is the first time that the NIA has proactively sought the properties of terrorist to be forfeited to the state under Section 26 of UAPA after being attached as proceeds of terrorism. Forfeiture of properties is a major new tool in NIA’s strategy to dismantle the terrorist ecosystem in the country,” the agency said in its statement.
'Khalistan Operatives Received Arms from Pakistan', NIA
According to the NIA statement, the police in Haryana had seized three improvised explosive devices (IEDs), one pistol with two magazines, 31 rounds of ammunition and INR 131,000 ($2,169) from the four Khalistan operatives in May.
They were charged under relevant provisions of the UAPA, Explosive Substances Act and Arms Act, it said.
“Investigations by NIA revealed that the four men had received multiple consignments of arms, ammunition, explosives and narcotics, which were sent via drones from Pakistan by wanted terrorist Harinder Singh Sandhu. The supplies were delivered at pre-determined locations near the Indo-Pakistan border,” the Indian agency statement read.