On Delhi violence, ED launches money laundering probe against main accused

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a money laundering case to investigate the sources of properties of Ansar Sheikh, the main accused in the Jahangirpuri communal clash last week, and other suspects, people familiar with the matter said.

A case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was registered a day after the Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana wrote to the central agency. ED will look into all the finances of Sheikh and other suspects and investigate if any funds were used to fuel communal tensions.

It is suspected that Sheikh may have received some remittances from abroad and preliminary investigations by Delhi Police have revealed that he owns a big mansion in Haldia, West Bengal, according to an officer familiar with the case.

As part of its probe into the clashes, the Delhi Police are already tracking his movements in the days leading to the clashes last week and examining his phone calls records.

Sheikh, a scrap dealer, lives with his family in Jahangirpuri. Police have booked him and four others under sections of the National Security Act (NSA) after the violent clashes on April 16. In a first information report (FIR) filed in the case, police have claimed that Sheikh and four-five other men in the area picked up a fight with those part of a religious procession when it was passing near a mosque in C block at around 6pm. Police wrote in the FIR that the fight then snowballed into clashes.

Sheikh’s wife, Shakina Begum, in her interviews to reporters since the clashes last week, has denied her husband’s involvement in the violence. “He had stepped out to diffuse the tension between Hindus and Muslims in the area when the first reports of clashes came in. We are from a place near Kolkata and have been living here for the last 10 years. My husband was not involved in the violence. The allegations are wrong,” she claimed.

Police have lodged seven FIRs related to the clashes and arrested 25 accused and apprehended three minors. Police have also identified 27 more accused involved in the clashes and said they will be arrested soon.