Gurugram: Indian agencies have uncovered a Pakistan-backed terror-financing route after the arrest of Gurugram-based lawyer Mohammad Rizwan Khan, who investigators say was operated by Pakistan’s spy agency as a “human hawala courier” to move money from across the border into Punjab.
Central agencies flagged Khan after detecting suspicious cash flows and encrypted communications. Acting on these inputs, Haryana Police detained him near Pipaka village in Nuh on Monday evening. During interrogation, police say Khan admitted he was in regular contact with Pakistani intelligence operatives via WhatsApp and other encrypted platforms and confessed to withdrawing funds from his accounts and delivering cash as instructed.
Investigators say handlers deposited money into three of his bank accounts — one in Gurugram and two in Tauru, Nuh. Khan allegedly withdrew the amounts immediately and carried the cash into Punjab to eliminate any digital trail. The cash trail led police to his financier contact Ajay Arora, a sweetshop owner in Shahkot, who was picked up from Jalandhar on Wednesday night.
A senior investigator said Khan had recently withdrawn nearly ₹34 lakh and passed it on to Arora, who disclosed that the money had been hidden at a relative’s house in Punjab, prompting recovery operations. Police now estimate that ₹80 lakh to ₹1 crore has already moved through the route.
Khan and Arora face charges under Section 113(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 7 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A court has remanded both to police custody till December 4. Investigators believe Khan was first approached during his repeated visits to the Pakistan High Commission for visa work and was later tasked with cash movement. Whether he also met handlers inside Pakistan is under verification.
Khan, a resident of Kharkhari village in Nuh, has travelled to Pakistan several times to meet relatives who moved there after Partition. Police seized his phone and laptop and say forensic examination recovered messages, call logs and money instructions linking him to the Inter-Services Intelligence.
The investigation has also widened to a series of threat calls received by Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, a senior advocate who practises in the same Gurugram court complex as Khan. Bhardwaj had received multiple calls from Pakistan-based numbers and has now been provided with SWAT commando security. Police are examining whether court access was misused to gather information for foreign handlers.
Officials said the case mirrors two espionage arrests in Nuh earlier this year — Mohammad Arman and Mohammad Tareef — both allegedly cultivated through visa dealings before being drawn into intelligence work.
Police have launched raids across Amritsar, Jalandhar and adjoining districts to trace cash, identify additional suspects and secure digital evidence, while central agencies are tracking overseas links and the businessman said to have transferred part of the money abroad.
