New Delhi, February 4
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has chargesheeted the younger brother of dreaded gangster Aman Sahu in the Jharkhand Tetariyakhand coal mine terror attack case.
Akash Kumar alias Akash Sahu of district Ranchi, Jharkhand, has been chargesheeted under sections 120B r/w 384 of IPC, and sections 13, 17, 18, 20, 21 & 22 of UA(P) Act. With this, NIA has filed a total of five chargesheets against 26 accused so far.
The coal mine attack was perpetrated in December 2020 as part of a criminal conspiracy hatched by members of the Sujit Sinha and Aman Sahu terror gang with the objective of extortion and disruption of the colliery in Latehar, Jharkhand.
NIA, which took over the probe in March 2021, found during investigation that Akash Sahu, currently in prison for his involvement in various criminal cases across Jharkhand, was directly involved in the mine attack conspiracy. He was engaged in harbouring, channelising and investing the terror funds, and in creating infrastructure for the terror gang.
The NIA informed that Akash was the financial node of the terrorist gang, and had been collecting levy and extortion money through multiple channels. Using financial layering, he was laundering the extorted funds through various shell firms and other financial entities. He was also investing the funds in a variety of assets belonging to Aman Sahu and his associates.
The Aman Sahu gang has been involved in several heinous crimes in Jharkhand, including bombing, firing, arson, as well as firing on police officers and jail authorities. It has been involved in disrupting government work and law & order, besides terrorising businessmen and contractors for collecting extortion/levy, as per NIA investigations. The gang has also forged connections with splinter Naxal organisations and other terror gangs outside the state to further its violent agenda, officials noted.
