The special branch police of the state central zone, who has been tracking the operations and livelihood of migrant labourers in Kerala, has found that they transfer around Rs 150 crore to West Bengal, Orissa
and Assam every year, from different banks in Ernakulam, Kottayam and Alappuzha districts.
The study on the money transfer has shed new light on the suspicion that several migrant labourers in
the state are working as agents for extremist organizations and counterfeit currency rackets.
The probe into the money transfer has found that roughly Rs 8 crore is sent to West Bengal, Orissa and Assam through State Bank of India alone every month, while it was Rs 6 crore in 2011.
The cops have also found that around Rs 3 crore is being transferred through Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and India Post.
The total money transferred through all the banks comes up to Rs 100 crore, while another Rs 50 crore gets delivered when the labourers travel to their native place for holidays.
The state intelligence wing had earlier received information about the alleged role of migrant labourers in extremist activities.
It’s also learnt that a large amount of counterfeit notes are being brought from Bangladesh to the state through migrant labourers from Assam and West Bengal.
Though the cops are yet to find a clue about the funding for extremist activities, they suspect that a lion’s share of the transferred money has been going to Bangladesh from West Bengal, Orissa and Assam.
“We have been tracking the money transfer for the last four years. However, we have not found the involvement of extremist organisations among migrant labourers. We will continue to monitor them”, said a top official of the special branch police.