Corporates funding saffron terror, suspects ATS

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Mumbai :Wednesday, November 19, 2008,

The probe into how Hindu outfits accused of terrorism had links with some Army men brought a few business houses under the scanner of Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad and Central security agencies investigating the finances of the group allegedly responsible for Malegaon blast.

Sources attached with the probe said that a religious leader from Southern Gujarat was one of those who collected funds from the business houses.

Working on the chain of events about finances of the Abhinav Bharat, a little know saffron outfit allegedly involved in the September 29 Malegaon blast that left six people dead, sources said names of some of the business houses in Maharashtra as well as Gujarat cropped up.

A check was being done whether the business houses were aware about the end use of funds. "We have questioned some of them and we are working to ascertain as to how much of money had been handed over to the saffron outfit," a senior probe official said on the condition of anonymity.

The names of the business houses were not divulged for security reasons.

The money was generally collected by a self-styled religious leader hailing from Gujarat and efforts to seek his custody had not fructified so far, they said.