New Delhi: A fact-finding committee of the Delhi Minorities Commission has stated that it has “not come across any evidence to state that terror-funding was received for the construction of the Khulafa-e-Rashideen Masjid” in Palwal district of Haryana. The committee was constituted after recent media reports had quoted the National Investigation Agency as stating that it had been funded by terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-linked charity Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF).The committee was constituted by DMC as one of the accused in the case, the Imam of the mosque Mohammad Salman, was a resident of Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi and with regard to him, the NIA had been quoted as saying that he was “among the arrested accused” and that “money was allegedly being distributed” by him.Comprising well-known human rights activist Ovais Sultan Khan as coordinator, former member of Delhi Minorities Commission A.C. Michael, advocate and human rights activist Abu Bakr Sabbaq and member of the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee, Sardar Gurminder Singh Matharu, the fact-finding committee toured the area and met the police, administration and panchayat officials, as well as other citizens.Reports about the terror-funding first surfaced on October 15In its report, the panel said it was on October 15 that the media reported the alleged case of terror-funding related to the construction of Khulafa-e-Rashideen Masjid in Palwal’s Uttawar village.“The reports were based on a NIA source. It was reported that NIA probe has led investigators to at least six instances where funds from terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-linked charity Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) were distributed through a “hawala” network among poor families in Haryana’s Mewat region to build goodwill for the terror group,” the committee recorded.Also read: NIA Arrests Hizbul Mujahideen Chief’s Son in 2011 Terror Funding CaseIt further stated that NIA officials were quoted by the media as saying that “we suspect that the charity was done to create a base for Lashkar or FIF activities in the area. The idea was to generate goodwill by distributing money for organising weddings and the Masjid – to be encashed at the right opportunity”.The agency also claimed that it had “found records of around Rs 70 lakh being sent to India in instalments by the FIF network” and that it had “seized books from the office of the Masjid to verify its accounts.” Further, unnamed officials were quoted as saying that “money for construction of Masjid may have been given by others in the area as well, but we believe that part of the funds came from FIF”.Members of the Delhi Commission for Minorities and the Fact Finding Committee at the release of the report on October 31, 2018. Credit: The WireStating that the media had reported that “among the arrested accused was Mohammed Salman, a native of Uttawar village and resident of Delhi’s Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin. The money was allegedly being distributed by Salman”, the committee stated that NIA officials were also quoted as saying that “Salman was in regular touch with one Dubai-based Pakistani national, who in turn is connected with the deputy chief of FIF” and that he was receiving funds, being sent by FIF operators and his associates, through hawala operators to further their “nefarious activities and create unrest in India and carry out the terrorist activities”.The committee said the mosque was searched by NIA officers on October 3, just days after the agency arrested three men, including Mohammed Salman.‘Villagers insist Salman comes from a respected family’The panel said it was also reported by a section of the media that in Uttawar village few buy the NIA story and most believe it is a result of a court battle between the villagers and some families occupying the masjid land. It said Khalid Hussain, who was present at the mosque when it was searched and is the son of former Uttawar headman (sarpanch) Akhtar Hussain, was quoted as saying that “because we are trying to evict them, it appears someone has given this wrong information to the police. No one in the village can believe such a thing. Salman comes from a very reputed family in the village. No one from his family has ever had a criminal case against them.”The committee also noted that a newspaper had quoted how while showing the ledger books, the current Imam of the mosque, Mohammed Jamshed, had said: “All you will find here is an account of onions, garlic and tomatoes. Our records are absolutely clean. We do not investigate the source of contributions. This Masjid has been built with contributions from a lot of people. We do not know where Salman got his money from. But I am not ready to believe he would put dirty money here. If at all it is dirty money, I doubt if he knew that himself”.The committee said Salman’s late father, Maulvi Dawood, as per media reports, is well-regarded among Muslims in the Mewat region. “He migrated to Delhi more than 50 years ago and was a prominent person of a significant in Tablighi Markaz Nizamuddin till his death. For Uttawar, he was an authority on Islam and had the final say in all disputes in the village,” it added.Testimonies reveal that ‘Hindus-Muslims collectively decided to build mosque’The committee recorded how during its visit to the region, it learnt from many that even Hindus had contributed to the construction of the mosque. It noted that the village has a population of about 25,000 of which about 85% are Muslims and that it had a history of communal harmony.The panel said a cousin of Salman, Mohammad Yaqoob, whom it met at the mosque, said the mosque is spread over 10 acres and has come up on Shamlaati (collective land of the village) land. Also, he insisted that the villagers, including Hindus, had collectively decided to build the mosque on this land. A committee was formed for the purpose and it had done the fund raising and collection for the construction of the mosque.Former village headman, Akhtar Hussain, the panel said, testified that after completion of the Tablighi Ijtima, an amount of Rs. 20 lakhs, was found to be surplus and it was then used for the construction of the compound wall. Hussain claimed that “Mohammad Salman is an honest and religious personality of the area,” the DMC-appointed Committee said, adding thatHussain also spoke about how the construction of the mosque had started in 2009 and how some people had illegally encroached parts of its land. The dispute arose when the Masjid Committee decided to uproot the encroachers. Thereafter seven cases were filed in local courts against members of this committee.‘NIA team took away all mosque records without providing any acknowledgement’Hussain also disclosed that NIA had first visited the village on October 4 and its officials had taken away all the records including receipts and registers in original without providing any acknowledgement for the same.The panel also spoke to some Hindu residents like Rohtas Kumar, a native of Maluka village, who, it said, runs a photo studio and had done the videography and photography of the foundation stone laying ceremony for the mosque. The committee said Kumar told it that Hindus and Muslims were together “collecting and contributing funds to build this Masjid” and that they were “living here in a friendly relations”. It also quoted him as saying that “all the news about funding from Pakistan for this Masjid is only propaganda to destroy the image of the Mewat region and to polarize the voters by communal forces.”A resident of Uttawar village, Rohtash Jain, who runs a general store, the committee said, also noted that “all the allegations seem to be false and baseless”. He said residents of 84 villages had contributed towards construction of the mosque.Also read: India Welcomes Decision to Put Pakistan Back on Terror-Financing Watch ListThe fact-finding committee also spoke to the local police officers who it said noted that they “never inquired in this regard” as they had not received any complaint or intelligence input regarding any illegal or anti-national activity in the region or against the accused Mohammad Salman or anyone else.As such, in its findings the Committee said it had “found during interaction with local people, including all religious and caste groups, they themselves have contributed and raised funds for building of the Khulafa-e-Rashideen Masjid”.‘Property dispute behind allegation, mosque and LeT have different ideological beliefs’Further, it said, Khulafa-e-Rashideen Masjid’s name is dragged because of the internal property dispute and that local Hindus and Muslims have together donated the total 10 acres land for the mosque, madarsa (8 acres), government hospital and old-age home (2 acres) from their collective land.The panel also noted that while Khulafa-e-Rashideen Masjid is of Tablighi Jamaat, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) belong to Salafi School of thought. “These two do not agree with each others’ teachings and practices. Therefore, there is no question of collaboration between them.The panel, which had also met relatives of Salman, said Harvindar Yadav, an NIA officer, had told them that somebody had complained against him in the Home Ministry. However, the Committee noted that the complaint, FIR, and arrest dates do not match the order of incidents, and it also charged that there were many serious procedural lapses by NIA while making the seizures and arrests.Committee recommends restraint by mediaIn its recommendations in the matter, the fact-finding committee has demanded that Delhi Minorities Commission issue an advisory to all media houses and agencies to be careful in reporting the alleged terror related cases and not to sensationalise them. It has also demanded that DMC write to Union Home Secretary about procedural lapses committed by NIA in this case.Also, it has asked DMC to urge the Bhogal branch of UCO Bank, from where Mohammad Salman was taken into “illegal detention” on September 25 to to submit the CCTV recording of that day.