Kerala A safe haven for Jihadi Financial Terrorists

Fake note case: NIA gets Dawood-aide Taklya in custody
The Pioneer – Kochi

 
A Special CBI Court, designated NIA court, on Friday left Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Taklya (54), known as “cashier” of Dawood Ibrahim and a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, in the custody of the NIA till November 16 for questioning in Kerala’s Karippur counterfeit currency case of 2008. Taklya is tenth accused in the case.

The NIA had brought Taklya from Mumbai, where he was lodged at the Arthur Road prison in connection with the serial blasts case, to Kochi by train at 4.30 AM Friday under tight security. A heavy posse of policemen was present when he was produced before Special Judge S Vijayakumar in his chamber.

The case pertains to the seizure by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence of Pakistan-made fake currency notes “worth” Rs 72.5 lakh – in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 – from one Muhammad Alshad of Thrissur, travelling from Ras Al-Khaimah, at the Kozhikode international airport at Karippur on August 16, 2008.

The case was first probed by the Kerala Police but was handed over to the NIA in January last after indications of a terror angle became obvious. Taklya’s role in fake note-peddling was found in the NIA probe. The agency had named Taklya as an accused six months ago after questioning him at the Arthur Road prison twice.

The NIA told the court that Taklya had smuggled counterfeit currencies manufactured in Pakistan into India through UAE in a bid to destabilize the nation. It said that Taklya had routed the counterfeit currency notes seized at Karippur through Abu Dhabi after obtaining it from one Ibrahim Bhai, a Pakistani national.

In the report submitted in the court, the investigating agency explained that that the racket had adopted a method of accepting actual Indian currency worth Rs 350 in exchange of fake notes worth Rs 1,000. Large-scale fund-raising had been done in India and several Gulf countries for distributing counterfeit currency notes in the country, the agency told the court.

Taklya, a close aid of Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, had been coordinating the movement of fake Indian notes from Abu Dhabi where he was working as a carpet shop manager in 2008. The NIA court had on September 29 issued a warrant against Taklya in the fake note case, directing the superintendent of the Arthur Road prison to produce him before it on Friday.

The NIA – like the authorities in Kerala – expects that questioning Taklya, arrested by the CBI in Mumbai on June 10, 2010 upon deportation from Abu Dhabi, could yield valid information on the large-scale deployment of fake Indian currency notes for purchases in hawala land deals across the State.

The NIA has reportedly made flawless security arrangements in Kochi for keeping and questioning Taklya, coming under the category of prisoners who needed heavy security. Another accused, a Keralite named Aboobacker, was produced before the court on November 3 after deportation from Abu Dhabi.

Responses