Note ban has ‘little impact’ on Naxals

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 announced the demonetisation decision with an aim to curb black money, counterfeit currency and also terror and Naxal funding, but security agencies feel that shadow money in the hinterland, where Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) have their sway, may continue to flourish with the help of local inhabitants and over-ground secret cadre.

Several estimates by intelligence and security agencies peg the annual turnover of Naxal funding in the range of Rs 120 to Rs 130 crore.

Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), who directly deal with the Central and state security agencies, said initially, there was a feeling that the surprise announcement on demonetisation would deal a death knell to the Naxal funding in line with the terror funding.

“But the game-changer move is facing an uphill battle domestically, as latest intelligence inputs from ground zero in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha suggest, LWEs appeared to have innovated to exploit the financial system in order to beat the anti-black money measures,” said a senior official. The left wing ultras have built a shadowy financial empire through extortion, kidnapping and drugs.

Sources said the IB reports at least from two places – Khasawan in Saraikella district of Jharkhand and a few places from Bastar in Chhattisgarh – suggest similar trends of Maoists somehow managing to collect money in new currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500. The reports said possibly the extremists could be misusing bank accounts of villagers and cadre of over-the-ground groups, they revealed.

The IB report to the MHA has asked it to sensitise villagers in LWE-affected areas against allowing their bank accounts be misused.