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Ansari's funds network being tracked
By Vinay Kumar
NEW DELHI, FEB. 11. Acting on the initial leads emerging from the grilling of the underworld don, Aftab Ansari, now in CBI custody, the security and intelligence agencies today launched an elaborate operation to zero in on some of the hawala operators reportedly active in Rajasthan.
While remaining tight-lipped about the operation, highly-placed sources said that it came to light that one of the accused, Jamaluddin Nasir, arrested by the Kolkata police in connection with last month's American Center attack, had been making telephone calls to a hawala operator suspected to have been in Jaipur.
Sources said that Nasir admitted to the police that he had been working for Ansari for the last two years as the main local organiser in Kolkata. He is said to have played a pivotal role in putting together the team that was involved in the American Center attack on January 22, killing five Kolkata policemen. It is also believed that Nasir used to transfer and receive funds for the operation through hawala channels. ``We suspect that the links of Ansari and his network were spread far and wide in West Bengal and Bihar,'' sources said.
Sleuths were also probing the purchase of a jeep by some of the suspects in Jaisalmer.
The CBI and detectives of intelligence agencies continued to quiz Ansari on the second day today. It is learnt that he has admitted to his involvement in the Kolkata incident, the kidnappings of Bhaskar Parikh in Rajkot and Partha Roy Burman in Kolkata.
The focus, however, would be on unravelling Ansari's links in Pakistan and tracking down his financial linkages. Efforts are also on to zero in on a hawala operator in Hyderabad who had allegedly transferred money to Ansari in Dubai after the kidnapping of Parikh and Partha Burman last year.
Sources said that Ansari appeared stunned when the map of his residence in Rawalpindi was shown to him by the CBI officials during the first round of interrogation. Several e-mail accounts were being verified, but nothing substantial is said to have been found in them as many of his associates used to communicate to him from a number of cyber cafes in Kolkata.
The CBI and intelligence agencies may carry out several raids in the coming days as the process of check and cross-check was being carried out. Ansari could also attract the provisions of the recently-promulgated POTO, sources said.
Some of the hideouts of his accomplices were reportedly located in Dhanbad and Kishanganj. One of the accused in the Kolkata shooting incident, Sadaqat, had fled during a police encounter in Hazaribagh in which two others, Zahid and Mohammad Salim, were killed.
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