A local court in Bengaluru on Friday sentenced Bilal Ahmed Quta, alias Imran Jalal, a terrorist of the Pakistani based terror group lashkar-e- Tayyeba(leT) seven years rigours imprisonment in a terror financing and money laundering case. A special court judge justice Shivshankar Amarannanavar pronounced the verdict for terror financing involving Bilal Ahmed Quta alias Imran Jalal. Bilal Ahmed Quta alias Imran Jalal, who operated from Karnataka, has also been fined Rs 50,000 by the court, the officials said.
The case dates back to January, 2007 when the man was arrested with an AK series assault rifle, 200 bullets, five hand grenades and a satellite phone by the Karnataka State police while he was getting down from a bus in Bengaluru. He was charged with “waging war” against Government of India, possession of arms and explosives and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).Quta was involved in these activities since 2001 and was a member of the leT, the officials said. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) later booked Quta under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA) in 2009, taking cognisance of the police charges and subsequent conviction by a local court.
The central probe agency had also “confiscated” Rs 34,830 funds of Quta under anti-money laudering laws as it identified the money to be meant for terror financing. This is the fourth case of conviction under the PMlA in the country. The PMlA was enacted in 2002 and implemented from 2005 to check serious crimes of tax evasion, generation of black money and money laundering.
The first conviction under the PMlA in the country had come in January last year when a Ranchi court convicted former Jharkhand minister Hari Narayan Rai and sentenced him to seven years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh. The stringent PMlA law allows for a maximum of seven years of imprisonment and a fine.