Demonetisation impacted terrorism: minister -Governance Now

Demonetisation impacted terrorism: minister

Since illegally held cash forms the major chunk of terror funding, after demonetisation, the cash held with the terrorists turned worthless

GN Bureau | August 2, 2017

#demonetisation #terrorism

(Illustration: Ashish Asthana)

The scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency had a positive impact in the fight against terror in the country; the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Since illegally held cash forms the major chunk of terror funding, after the demonetisation, most of the cash held with the terrorists turned worthless. Demonetisation also put an end to Pakistan-printed high quality fake indian currency notes and adversely affected the hawala operators, said minister of state for home affairs, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir.

The decision of the government to demonetise caused disconcert among Left Wing Extremism (LWE) formations.

“LWE cadres tried to minimise their losses by having the money deposited into the accounts of the sympathisers or in the accounts of villagers on the basis of threats and coercion. Instances of such efforts of depositing of high denomination currency notes worth several lakhs by LWE cadres have come to notice in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” he said.

Security forces seized nearly Rs 97.75 lakh from various LWE groups in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Telangana during demonetisation.

The government has constituted a Combating Financing of Terrorism Cell (CFT Cell) in the home ministry coordinate with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental international body dealing with anti-money laundering and CFT issues.

National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also constituted a terror funding and fake currency cell to focus on terror funding and fake currency cases. Besides, various agencies such as Financial Intelligent Unit and regulatory and enforcement agencies under the finance ministry keep a check on the inflow of foreign funds.

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