Demonetisation: NE militant groups used tribal people's bank account, Jan Dhan accounts to exchange banned notes

A top official of the Assam police said that following the demonetisation the militant groups of the region have faced huge fund crisis.

“We have found some vital clues that the militant groups of the region, including ULFA(I), NSCN(K), GNLA, NDFB, had used some bank accounts of tribal people and Jan Dhan accounts to exchange their scraping denominations,” the top police official said.

Recently, Meghalaya police had apprehended four persons with Rs 35 lakh old notes who tried to exchange the banned notes of Garo outfit group GNLA to new notes.

The Karimganj district SP Pradip Ranjan Kar recently said that around Rs 7 crore banned notes had entered Assam via Tripura from Bangladesh after centre’s demonetisation decision.

“All the currencies suspected to be carried by some agents of militant groups to exchange it with new notes,” Kar said.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax department is monitoring suspicious bank deposits in the region.

A top IT official said that following the demonetisation move around Rs 816 crore old notes were deposited in Jan Dhan accounts alone in Assam from Nov 10 to Dec 7.

“Not only Assam, huge denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 were deposited in the Jan Dhan accounts in different states of the region,” the top IT official said.

The IT official also said that the zero balance Jan Dhan accounts in the region had dramatically reduced following demonetisation.

“We also monitoring whether militant groups funds were deposited in these accounts,” the top IT official said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath, Image: Representational picture of new Rs 2000 currency note)