In a rare case of India impounding foreign assets accumulated through terror funds, probe agencies will soon be taking possession of Nepal-based bank accounts and immovable properties allegedly operated by the chief of a prominent Northeast insurgent group, 'Black Widow'.
In culmination of an over two-year long diplomatic and legal cooperation between investigation and enforcement agencies of India and Nepal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recently got the nod of the neighbouring country to attach the assets of Niranjan Hojai alias Nirmal Rai, the 'commander-in-chief' of insurgent outfit Dima Halam Daogah-Jewel (Black Widow), which has been operating in Assam for many years now.
The agency claimed that these were created by Hojai after allegedly laundering the proceeds of terrorist activities perpetrated in the Northeast of India.
After a series of exchanges of crime dossiers between the two countries, sources said, Kathmandu has helped a team of Indian officials in identifying the alleged assets of Hojai in that country which are essentially a house in the Sunsari area and a few bank accounts with some "substantial" funds in them.
ED officials, the sources said, were able to satisfy their Nepali counterparts that its money laundering case (registered in 2010) against Hojai was water-tight and the attachment of these assets would help it crack down on a major terror financing network, especially at a time when India is looking at all avenues to curb and dismantle instances of black money and illegal funds stashed abroad.
Nepal, the sources added, was also sent Letters Rogatory (judicial request) sometime back in this case under the stringent criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
