Babbar Khalsa funding probe: Govt to send NIA team to London

NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry has decided to send a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to London to get leads from the Scotland Yard in an ongoing probe against the banned Sikh extremist group, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).

A senior ministry official told ET that NIA had last week proposed sending a team to the UK for further probe and permission has been granted by the Ministry after there has been some information that the banned outfit was receiving funds from elements in the UK.

The step has also been taken after the NIA got some “positive signals” from the UK authorities of co-operation in acting against two UK-based alleged Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) operatives, Balbir Singh Bains and Joga Singh.

According to an NIA FIR registered on August 28 last year, the agency has evidence to show that certain UK-based operatives of BKI and a BKI front organization based in the UK, Akhand Kirtnee Jatha, have been transferring money running into crores to BKI sleeper cells in Punjab o revive terrorism in Punjab.

The FIR had said Bains, who is said to be running an NGO—Sikh Organisation for Prisoners Welfare in the UK, and Singh, had transferred huge amounts of money to BKI operatives in India.