Padgha ISIS module from Maharashtra cut and smuggled Khair wood from reserve forest: ED

New Delhi, Dec 13 (PTI) An alleged ISIS module operating from Maharashtra's Padgha village in Thane district was involved in the illegal cutting and smuggling of Khair wood from the local reserve forests, an ED probe into a terror financing-linked money laundering case has found.

The federal probe agency conducted searches in the twin villages of Borivali-Padgha on December 11, apart from locations in Delhi, Kolkata, Hazaribag (Jharkhand ) and Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), among others.

The money laundering probe stems from a November 2023 case filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against a "highly radicalised" module of the banned global terrorist outfit ISIS, based in Padgha, and its late self-proclaimed leader in India, Saquib Nachan.

The agency said in a statement on Saturday that it seized Rs 3.70 crore in cash apart from gold jewellery and bullion worth Rs 6 crore during the raids.

A financial analysis, as per the Enforcement Directorate (ED), found that "various individuals linked with the Borivali-Padgha ISIS module were involved in illegal cutting and smuggling of Kaith trees from the reserve forest areas of the said area". The wood of Acacia catechu, locally known as Khair, is used to extract Kattha (catechu) that is widely used in 'paan' and as an ingredient in Ayurvedic medicines.

The ED said the searches covered various companies and entities linked with the production of Kattha that were procuring the wood from suspects. Some wood that was recovered during the Thursday searches was handed over to the forest department by the ED.

The NIA had alleged that the Padgha module was engaged in recruitment, training, procurement of weapons and explosives, and raising funds to sustain their operations.

It has named 21 people in the chargesheet in the case on charges of conspiracy to recruit and radicalise vulnerable youth into the ISIS ideology and fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

According to the NIA, the accused had self-declared the Padgha village in rural Thane as a "liberated zone" named 'Al Sham', and they were motivating impressionable Muslim youth to relocate to Padgha from their place of residence to strengthen their base. PTI NES PRK PRK