The Jammu & Kashmir Police on Wednesday claimed that some Hurriyat leaders, who were hand in glove with few educational consultancies, were selling Pakistan-based MBBS seats and other courses to fund terrorism in Kashmir valley.
So far the police claimed to have arrested four separatist leaders while looking for others in connection with the case. The FIR in the case was earlier registered in July 2020.
Those arrested by the Counter Intelligence Kashmir in Srinagar have been identified as Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Bhat, self-styled chairman of Salvation Movement, Fatima Shah, Mohammad Abdullah Shah and Sabzar Ahmad Sheikh.
Police are also looking for Bhat”s brother, Altaf Ahmad Bhat, and Shah”s brother, Manzoor Ahmad Shah, and others in connection with the case. The two named accused had exfiltrated to Pakistan during early 1990s for illegal arms and ammunition training and settled down on the other side.
"They played a key role on behalf of ISI in facilitating matters pertaining to admissions under this category for this set of Hurriyat linked persons in India as part of a nefarious design of pumping money into militancy and other terrorist related activities", the police spokesman added.
According to a police spokesman, "the information on the basis of which criminal investigation had been started into the matter also suggested that the money collected from the parents of the aspiring or potential students was used, at least partly, to support and fund terrorism and separatism in different ways".
The police spokesman said while investigating the case vide FIR number 05/2020 under section 13, 17, 22A, 40 Unlawful Activities Prevention Act read with section 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, many significant facts emerged and came to be established.
During the course of investigation, it surfaced that MBBS and other professional degree related seats in many cases were preferentially given to those students who were close family members or relatives of killed terrorists.
There were also cases where the quota allotted to individual Hurriyat leaders were sold to anxious parents who desired their children to have MBBS and other professional degrees in one way or the other.
More than 80 cases were studied in which either the students or their parents were examined for academic years between 2014-18.Searches were undertaken in about a dozen premises in the valley to look for evidence of collection of money and its further usage.
The analysis of digital records and paper receipts as well as records pertaining to bank transactions revealed that a sizable portion of the money was kept aside for personal use.
“Evidence also came on record to show that money was put into channels that ended up supporting programmes and projects pertaining to terrorism and separatism. For example, payment for organising stone pelting also could also be traced and brought on record,” the spokesperson said.