Mangalore: Bihar police in city to take custody of Aysha Banu
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Updated
Mangalore, Nov 12: A Bihar police team on Tuesday November 12 arrived in the city to interrogate Aysha Banu and take her into custody. Aysha has been arrested for allegedly supplying money to terror suspects to carry out the recent Patna blasts.
It is said that Aysha was arrested from her house at Panjimogeru late night on Monday November 11.
The Bihar police team is interrogating Aysha and her husband Zubair at an undisclosed location in the city, sources said.
Aysha will be produced in the court on Wednesday November 13 and then taken to Lakhisarai in Bihar for further investigation.
Following a tip-off from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Bihar police arrested five people -- four from Lakhisarai and one from Dhanbad in Jharkhand -- on charges of providing financial help to terror suspects in connection with the Patna blasts.
Earlier Report
Mangalore: Terror link - Woman from city supplied money for Patna blasts
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Nov 12:
In a revelation that indicates deepening terror links in the city, a woman from Panjimogeru here has been reportedly arrested for supplying money to terror suspects belonging to Indian Mujahideen who allegedly carried out the attack in Patna ahead of Modi rally recently, sources said.
Aysha Banu, a resident of Panjimogeru has also been named in the report filed by Lakhisarai police in the case, it is learnt.
Sources said that she was in her residence till Monday November 11 evening, but on Tuesday her house was found locked. It is suspected that she has been arrested by the investigating officials in a secret operation.
It is said that Aysha was born 'Asha', a Hindu, and later she fell in love with a Muslim and converted to Islam. The couple has three children. It is said that they had shifted to Panjimogeru over 10 years ago, and that her husband Zubair runs a bidi business. Aysha is said to be originally from Madikeri in Coorg.
Sources said that the investigating team found that she was operating 35 bank accounts under different names.
It is alleged that her accomplices Mohammed Fayaz and Mohammed Kismet of Lakhisarai in Bihar used to lure local Hindu youths and make them open bank accounts. Aysha would then call these youths and give them instructions about transactions to be done, for which they were paid commission of 10 percent, it is learnt. The amount would be withdrawn by IM operatives through ATM, said sources.
The investigating team reportedly found transactions worth Rs one crore through these accounts over the past two months, and it is said that Aysha would get funds from Pakistan and other countries. The mode of transaction from these countries is not yet definite, but police sources said it was done through hawala, and that a person by name Ibrahim, said to be a Pakistan ISI agent, was running the hawala racket with Aysha. At a time she used to withdraw a maximum Rs 49,000 from a bank account, as amount of Rs 50,000 or more requires Pan card.
The neighbours say that she used to keep to herself and never mingle with them, and hence they did not know much about her.
Her husband Zubair too has been taken into custody, sources said. However, another source claimed that Zubair and Aysha separated about two years ago.
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