NIA arrests one in People’s Liberation Front terror funding case

Some suspects in the case formed a company as front for insurgent activities, the agency says

New Delhi: The anti-terror probe agency National Investigation Agency said on Tuesday it has arrested Fuleshwar Gope, a resident of Gumla District in Jharkhand, in connection with a terror funding case involving People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI).
The NIA officials said the suspects were produced before a special court in Ranchi, which remanded him to NIA’s custody for four days.
They said the NIA took up the investigation into the case from Jharkhand Police, which had registered an FIR under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Law Amendment Act.
The state police registered the case after seizure of Rs.25.38 lakh belonging to PLFI chief Dinesh Gope and was about to be deposited in one of the branches of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Ranchi in November 2016. The state police had then arrested four accused persons and a charge-sheeted was filed on January 1, 2017, the officials said.
The NIA took up the case a year later in January 2018 and had arrested six more accused persons involved in the case.
“Further investigation revealed that Fuleshwar had conspired with main accused Dinesh and formed a dubious company namely, M/s Shiv Shaktisamridhhi Infra Pvt. Ltd, in partnership with Hira Devi (first wife of Dinesh), for channelling the extorted levy amount into legitimate means by depositing it in the bank account of the dubious business entity,” a senior agency official said, adding that the profit earned by the said company was intended to be used for furtherance of PLFI’s insurgent activities.
PLFI, a Maoist splinter group, is a banned organisation in India.
Earlier during the course of investigation the NIA had conducted searches and seized properties worth Rs 90 lakh and other incriminating documents. A little later Hira Devi and Sakuntala Kumari---both wives of Dinesh---were arrested and two other associates Jaiprakash Singh Bhuiya and Amit Deswal were also arrested.