NIA attaches 5 assets in terror case against gangsters involved in organised crimes

PTI, Mar 4, 2023, 8:28 PM IST

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency Saturday said it has attached five assets as part of its ongoing probe against north India-based gangsters involved in organised crimes like extortion and murder, including that of a Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.

”The properties attached include a house of Asif Khan in Delhi, a house and agricultural land at three different locations belonging to Surender Singh alias Chiku in Mahendragarh district of Haryana,” the federal probe agency said in a statement.

These attachments and seizures come in the wake of the searches conducted by the agency at 76 locations in February linked to gangsters and their associates in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi-NCR.

The action pertains to the cases registered by the NIA against three major organised crime syndicates under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in August 2022. These syndicates had spread their ”mafia-style criminal networks in the northern states and were involved in many sensational crimes, such as the murder of popular singer Sidhu Moosewala and large-scale extortions from businessmen and professionals”.

Their crimes included the killing of Maharashtra builder Sanjay Biyani, and Sandeep Nangal Ambia, an international Kabbadi organiser in Punjab, the agency said.

Many of these conspiracies were found to have been masterminded from abroad, including Pakistan and Canada, or by leaders of organised criminal syndicates inside jails, the NIA said.

The properties attached were found to be ”proceeds of terrorism”, which were used for hatching terror conspiracies and execution of crimes. Asif Khan was providing weapons and logistics support to the gangsters, including a safe haven, the agency said.

Surender alias Chiku is a close associate of notorious mafia leaders Naresh Sethi, Anil Chippi and Raju Basodi, who were earlier arrested by the NIA. Surender had been involved in multiple criminal cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion. He has been instrumental in investing the ‘proceeds of terror’ and crime in real estate and other businesses, the probe agency alleged.

”The drive to disrupt and dismantle such terror and mafia networks and their support infrastructure and to attach and seize their properties, which have been derived from ‘proceeds of terrorism and crime’ would be intensified in the coming days, along with police forces of various states,” the NIA said.