NIA raids houses of four accused of providing financial aid to disrupt PM's Patna event

Houses of four persons, who allegedly extended financial aid to disrupt PM Narendra Modi's programme in Patna in 2022, were raided by the NIA.

Dakshina Kannada (Karnataka): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday raided the houses of four persons, who allegedly provided financial help in bomb planting to disrupt Prime Minister Narendra Modi's programme in Patna in July 2022. The NIA officials went to the houses of the four accused in Bantwal and searched documents.

The raids are in connection with a case related to the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its alleged involvement in a conspiracy to disrupt the Prime Minister's event. The four accused have allegedly been in contact with those who conspired to foil the event and had also extended financial aid to them.

It was learnt that the accused transferred crores of rupees to various accounts in connection with that incident. This apart, it is also suspected that the four accused, who ran a shop in Bantwala's Melkar, provided financial assistance to a Dubai-based businessman. The Bantwala police and three buses comprising KSRP personnel were posted during the raid while the entire area was cordoned off under tight security.

Last year, NIA had raided the house of a leader in Bantwala and gathered details related to the Bihar incident. Now, raids were conducted to obtain the source and details of funds that were provided by the accused. During the interrogation, one of the accused said he had done business in Dubai and recently returned to his homeland while others said they were involved in a passport business.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier said that PFI had targeted Modi's rally in Patna and was preparing terror modules. It was also learnt that the PFI got logistics and financial aid for disrupting the PM's event. The NIA's raids are being conducted to find whether there were any links between the accused and the PFI.