New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency has arrested an alleged hawala operator from Uttarakhand in connection with its probe into the activities of Pakistan- based Lashker-e-Taiba in India, an official spokesperson said here Wednesday.

Abdul Samad, the fifth person arrested in the case, was arrested in Haridwar yesterday and brought to Delhi, the spokesperson said.

Samad, a resident of Bukkanpur village in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district, was produced before a designated court yesterday and remanded to six days NIA custody, he said.

Samad is a leading hawala operator, operating in the area of Muzaffarnagar, Deoband and Roorkee, who was acting as the conduit of an LeT financier based in Saudi Arabia through his cousin in that country, the spokesperson alleged.

In November 2017, he allegedly collected Rs 5.50 lakh from hawala operators in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, to deliver it to Shaikh Abdul Naeem, an active LeT member.

Shaikh visited and established bases in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir on the directions of his handler Abdul alias Rehan based in Pakistan, the NIA said. (PTI)

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