Chhattisgarh: Accused of terror funding, absconding for 9 years, arrested

Raipur Police arrested an accused of terror funding, cum a member of banned terrorist outfit Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) running absconding for last nine years.

The police team arrested the accused Shravan Mandal from Devghar, Jharkhand and brought Raipur in transit remand, Prashant Agarwal, Senior Superintendent of Police told media in Raipur, on Tuesday.

"The accused continuously escaped the police clutches for the last nine years and was in touch with terrorist groups like SIMI and was finally arrested," he said.

After the case of terror funding registered in Khamtarai Police Station, Raipur in 2013, five accused were already arrested and languishing in jail after getting convicted by the court.

Three accused Dhiraj Sao, Jubair Hussain, and Ayesha Bano were sentenced to 10-10 years imprisonment by the court and were serving their jail term, the SSP said.

Pappu Mandal and Raju Khan were also arrested in the connection but Sharavan Mandal continuously made escape and evaded the arrest.

Earlier he was staying in Delhi with concealed identity before police raided, and the accused escaped, police said.

Amid these, the court rejected the bail application against a case filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED), Raipur Police said.

However, in the case, after police received concrete intel inputs about the Shravan, a resident, of Jamui, Bihar that he was hiding in Deoghar, Jharkhand, a raid was conducted and the accused got arrested.

A press release issued by Raipur police said that Shravan got an ICICI Bank account opened in Saraswati Nagar Raipur, after getting a call from Pakistan based unknown agent Khalid in 2011. After making deduction of 13% commission from the amount, he continuously making payment of Lakhs of rupees to the SIMI agents like Raju Khan, Jubair Hussain, and Ayesha Bano to carry out terror activities, the release said.