NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday carried out searches at 30 locations across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh in connection with its ongoing probe in terrorist-gangster nexus case. The raids are underway since morning. Multiple NIA teams were pressed into the massive operation in close coordination with the concerned state police forces. The raids were conducted at the premises of suspects linked to the case based on specific inputs following interrogation of accused earlier held in the case. “NIA is carrying out extensive searches at 30 locations across 4 States of Punjab , Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and UT of Chandigarh in Terrorist-Gangster nexus case,” NIA said. On January 6, the agency also conducted major step towards demolishing the terrorist-gangster-drug smuggler nexus in the country, and attached four properties owned by members of dreaded gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s organized terror-crime syndicate. The properties, of which three were immovable and one movable, were attached in a coordinated swoop by NIA teams in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. NIA found all these properties to be ‘proceeds of terrorism’, used for hatching terror conspiracies and executing serious crimes. The NIA had registered a case against the organised crime syndicate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his associates under UA(P)A in August 2022. The agency’s investigations showed that the gang had spread its mafia style criminal networks in several states of the country. These networks were involved in many sensational crimes, such as the murders of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala as well as religious and social leaders like Pardeep Kumar, besides large-scale extortions from businessmen and professionals. NIA investigations have further revealed that many of these terror conspiracies were masterminded from abroad, including Pakistan and Canada, or by leaders of organised terror syndicates operating from prisons across India. As part of its efforts to disrupt and dismantle such terror and mafia networks and their support infrastructure, the NIA has adopted several targeted strategies in recent months, including attachment and seizure of their properties derived from ‘proceeds of terrorism’.
