Is there a link between the robberies at a nationalized bank heist at Choppandi in Karimnagar district of Telangana in February this year and the funding of terror activities in different parts of the country?
According to the Karimnagar district police are tightlipped on the alleged nexus between the robbery at Choppadandi branch of State Bank of India and bomb blast incident in Burdwan of West Bengal, sources pointed out that the NIA (The National Investigation Agency) had already taken into custody four people for questioning.
“We do have some leads but so far, there is nothing to suggest a terror link. Even the NIA has not disclosed anything to us.’’ Telangana police say they are clueless about any terror link so far.
This is the second instance of `terror link’ with Karimnagar district in the recent times. Earlier, police alleged that some local youths were being encouraged to join the forces of Islamic State in Iraq.
Unidentified people robbed Rs 46 lakh from the SBI Choppadandi branch on February 1 this year.
In fact, what the Karimnagar police did confirm is that the NIA officials recently visited the bank and collected information from the bank staff about the heist. There is speculation that the robbery was carried out by some SIMI members and that the entire money was used for funding terror activities,A police official told Express.
“The district police suspect that robbers, who had fled from Madhya Pradesh prison last year, were involved in the robbery at the Choppadandi branch of SBI,” Karimnagar district police superintendent V Shiva Kumar however said.