Terror funding case; couple arrested in Karnataka

A woman and her husband have been arrested here by Bihar police on the charge of funding Indian Mujahideen terror suspects in the recent Patna bomb blasts.
Amid tight security, the two were today produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class Manjula Hundi who issued Prisoner on Transit Warrant for 15 days enabling the Bihar police to take them there for further probe.
Aysha Banu and Zubair, picked up by Bihar police from their home at Panjimogaru near here on Monday, have been charged with using hawala money to fund the IM suspects.
36-year-old Aysha appeared in the court with her four-month old child.

The couple has been charged with IPC sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), police said.
Aysha hailing from Madikeri in Karnataka's Kodagu district was born Hindu and had converted to Islam, police said. A case has been registered against the couple at Kavoor police station.

A report from Lakhisarai in Bihar said the woman, "kingpin" of an illegal money transaction racket, was operating there with Pakistani link.
Sources said Aysha Bano, mother of three children and allegedly used to pass instruction to agents here to deposit money in designated bank accounts.
Preliminary inquiry has revealed that she was handled from Pakistan, according to police who said the woman was arrested on the basis of an FIR lodged at Lakhisarai.

The racket was busted on the basis of an alert from National Investigation Agency probing serial blasts at Patna and Bodh Gaya explosions.