The government on Tuesday said two suspicious bank accounts were frozen as the details of beneficiaries resembled that of terrorists listed by the United Nations.
"As reported by RBI, two bank accounts have been frozen under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
The government, however, did not provide details of persons or outfits whose bank accounts were frozen for suspected terror links.
The decision to freeze the bank accounts follows the inputs received by the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) about certain suspicious reports, he said, adding "certain details (of accounts matches with those) of terrorists whose names are appearing in UN Consolidated lists and other lists".
Although the matches were partial or incomplete, Meena said, "enhanced due diligence was conducted by FIU-IND and thereafter information was disseminated in appropriate case to relevant law enforcement intelligence agencies."
The available inputs with the government, the minister further said, indicate the use of banking channels by terrorist, terrorist outfits in India to receive funds from abroad.
The government had set up the FIU-IND in 2004 to receive information relating to certain types of transactions, including suspicious ones from the financial sector, analyse information and pass it on to law enforcement agencies.
The RBI had issued guidelines Know Your Customer guidelines to banks to verify the antecedents of account holder and ensure that they are connected with criminal and terror organisations.
The banks are also required to file Suspicious Transaction Reports pertaining to remittances and withdrawals from bank accounts and in respect of account holders.
The total number of suspicious transaction reports received by the FIU-IND doubled from 1916 in 2008 to 4,409 last year. These include 2,826 by banks, 841 by financial institutions and 742 by other financial intermediaries.
