This is the first time that the PM would be reviewing the impact of his decision to withdraw higher denomination notes on 8 November. After formally opening the conference, PM Modi will be spending a few hours with top law enforcing officials to get inputs from them on how his decision had affected the counterfeit currency mafia and black money that breed in the underworld. Though the impact of the cancellation of the big notes was originally not on the agenda of the conference that was decided a couple of months ago, the latest situation has come to occupy the centre stage of the deliberations that will be heard by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other top brass of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, said sources in the NPA. IB and NIA (National Investigation Agency), too, will join in. The DGPs of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are preparing detailed notes for the meeting, officials from both the states told The Sunday Guardian on the condition of anonymity.
The Telangana police is of the view that the radical Muslim groups in the interiors of South India don’t have much cash reserves. However, Maoists who still control vast portions of forest areas of Chhattisgarh and Orissa have large amounts of cash stocks in their hideouts, which are called “Maoist dumps”.
According to a rough estimate made by the Special Task Force (STF) that carries out anti-Maoist operations not only in Telangana, but also in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the Maoists have amassed cash to the tune of around Rs 2,000 crore in the forest zones, called Dandakaranya. An equal amount of money must be in their hands in Jharkhand and Bengal borders, the officials said.
However, this entire money is not stored at one single place or kept at the disposal of one single leader in the underground. The cash reserves are split into small portions of each around Rs 1-2 crore and would be placed in the custody of a district committee. The whereabouts of the exact location of these dumps, mostly hidden in inaccessible places, is well guarded with secret codes, said an official earlier worked with STF.
Not infrequently, these local leaders quit ranks with the Maoists and run away with the cash in the dumps, thus causing losses to the underground outfit. The leadership of the extremists often launch hunts to track down the runaway renegades and even kill them. “We come to know of the money through those who escape from the ranks,” the official explained.
Maoists mostly pool their money through donations from contractors in the forest areas and from the general public during special drives like “martyrs memorial week” observed in June/July every year. They also demand and collect big amounts from businessmen and leaders from their strongholds.
The Telangana intelligence wing of the police believes that it would be difficult for the Maoists to convert their entire amount into new currency as they don’t have much access to banks in Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
Some local people carrying amounts up to Rs 2-3 crore went to a bank recently for conversion and depositing. When questioned by the cops, the persons who carried the money couldn’t explain the source properly and the police believe that the money could be from the Maoists.
The police have information from the surrendered Maoists in the past that the ultras had also massed their wealth in the form of real estate in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Another wing of the underworld that was badly hit by the big notes’ withdrawal is radical Muslim groups—ISIS and SIMI moles in and around Hyderabad. The information gathered from the previously arrested militants had revealed that not much money was involved in the radicalisation of the youth. However, the cops are keeping tabs on the revenues of individuals and social and religious organisations that propagate radicalisation. The latest ban on the Islamic Research Centre in Mumbai and its funding is one such instance, but several other institutions are believed to be under the scanner of the police.