Mangalore: A female financier who may have helped fund the Patna terror attack against Gujarat chief minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was arrested from her home, on the outskirts of Mangalore on Tuesday morning.
Ayesha Banu, a mother of three, is alleged to have sourced and routed funds through a hawala network. She transferred cash to terror suspects linked to the terror group Indian Mujahideen, believed to be behind the Patna attacks.
Local police sources refused to officially confirm the arrest but admitted that the woman who had been detained lived in a house at Panjimogeru, about 9 kms from Mangalore with her three children and that she was arrested by a police team comprising of Bihar police and local police officials.
Local corporator elect and CPI(M) leader Dayanand Shetty confirmed the arrest and said that she was brought back to her house along with her husband for further enquiries on Tuesday evening.
Ayesha lived with her three children – the eldest is 18, while her youngest is about a year old. Her husband was working as a beedi contractor and the family lived in their own house.
“Though her husband kept to himself, she used to speak to us casually. We never suspected her,” a neighbour said.
Sources said Ayesha was arrested in the early hours on Tuesday by a team of local police and Bihar police. In the evening she and her husband were brought back to the house for enquiry by the police. “Panambur Police Inspector, Kavoor SI along with other officials brought Ayesha and her husband to the house as part of the investigations, in the evening,” he said.
People who rushed to the house, “Ayesha Manzil,” as news spread of the arrest found the house locked, leading to speculation that “she may have herself left the house,” one of the neighbors, who did not want to be named said.
It is said that Ayesha hailed from Kodagu and was a Hindu by birth. She converted to Islam after marrying Zubair. She lived in a rented house and moved to her own house around three years ago. “Earlier she lived in poverty.
However recently their financial condition seems to have improved,” sources said. “We feel that she might have been involved in hawala transaction with the intention of making some money as she was very poor. She might not even have known that she was involved in a financial transaction for terrorists,” a sympathetic neighbor said.
Ayesha may have been the last of the four people believed to be an aide to Riyaz a Bhatkal, founder of Indian Mujahideen, who lived in Mangalore and was active till October 2008.
