The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has allegedly found that at least Rs 100 crore in hawala money was being routed to create unrest and caste violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras over the rape and murder of a Dalit girl.
Out of the total amount of money, Rs 50 crore came from Mauritius, reported The Times of India citing ED sources.
According to the report, the central probe agency is tracking some suspects and dissecting data related to the blacklisted website "Justice for Hathras" to find if it was used as a gateway for foreign funding. The ED is also scanning the accounts to which money was transferred, it said.
The ED may file a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the admins of the website. The law empowers the agency to confiscate tainted funds collected for any alleged illegal activity through an online platform.
The Hathras police FIR has been filed under Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) of the Indian Penal Code.
This is a scheduled offence on which PMLA sections can be applied, reported PTI.
Once an ED case is registered under criminal sections of the PMLA, the agency can make enquiries from foreign regulators and investigative agencies to probe the details of money collected and utilised by individuals, said the news agency.
On October 5, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that “a host of organisations” were using foreign funding to hatch conspiracies to derail his government's development agenda “by stoking caste conflicts.”
A 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four men in Hathras on September 14. The victim had suffered spinal injuries, paralysis and cuts in her tongue. She died on September 29 at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital during treatment. The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30. Her family alleged they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family".
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