Hawala trader held in ISI espionage case

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Thursday arrested Javed Naviwala, an alleged hawala trader whose employee Altaf Qureshi was on Wednesday arrested by the counter-terror agency on suspicions of being an agent of the Pakistani spy agency Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).

The ATS has received a lot of information about the two accused during its investigation, said an officer.

Naviwala, during his interrogation, told ATS authorities that he had met a person named Iqbal from Karachi in 2007 and 2011. Iqbal introduced him to another person named Danish, Naviwala said.

ATS officials said, “Naviwala said in his statement that Danish asked him to transfer money in alleged UP-based ISI agent Aftab Ali’s account. We are trying to learn more about Danish and how many times he asked for money to be sent to Ali and others.”

“During Qureshi’s interrogation, he said that when he had gone to Pakistan in 2014 he received training related to email. He had opened several email accounts and was also given `5,000 and $400 to buy a laptop. They will be produced in the court tomorrow,” said an official.

According to ATS sources, it has been found that Naviwala and Qureshi were involved in illegal hawala transactions with Ali, who was arrested on Wednesday by the UP ATS.

Sources said a Pakistani agent who was based in Delhi named Meherban Ali had asked Naviwala to give money to Ali.

According to ATS sources, Naviwala got a call a few days ago stating that a friend needed some money in UP for charity so he should send `15,000 to an account number that was given to him.

Naviwala relayed the instructions to Qureshi and he then sent the money to the account, which was allegedly Ali’s. The Maharashtra ATS is currently obtaining details of all bank accounts held by Qureshi and Naviwala and examining the bank statements, after which the duo will be questioned as to the transactions that they have made over the years.