ED granted custody of Chhangur Baba’s aide

 

 

A SPECIAL PMLA court in Lucknow on Monday granted custody of Naveen Rohra, an alleged aide of Chhangur Baba, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as part of a money-laundering investigation linked to an alleged illegal religious conversion racket in Uttar Pradesh, official sources said. Rohra was lodged in jail after the Uttar Pradesh Police Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested him some time back. The ED had moved a local court seeking his custodial remand for questioning and the court has granted his custody to the agency, the sources said. The agency had earlier claimed that all the immovable assets “acquired” by Chhangur Baba were in the names of Naveen Rohra and his wife Neetu Rohra to conceal his actual involvement in money laundering.

 

It had, last month, taken a similar custody of Chhangur Baba alias Jamaluddin alias Karimulla Shah. Last month, the federal agency had conducted searches at Chhangur Baba’s native place in Balrampur district and two places in Mumbai. The ED later claimed and said in a statement that the accused (Chhangur Baba) had received funds worth Rs 60 crore in 22 bank accounts, including “large amounts” from abroad. The money-laundering case against Chhangur Baba stems from the ATS FIR filed at a police station in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021.