The Delhi police on Thursday claimed to have apprehended a conduit allegedly involved in receiving money from Pakistan and handing it over to terrorist outfits in Jammu and Kashmir, along with a hawala operator.

Acting on a tip off, sleuths of the special cell laid a trap near the Rajiv Gandhi memorial on May 13 and nabbed Zafar Umar Khan, a resident of Poonch district of J&K, and hawala operator Rakesh as they exchanged money, police sources said.

A pistol and nine cartridges, a cell phone, Rs 4 lakh in hawala money and diaries were seized from Khan while two mobile phones were recovered from Rakesh, they said.

Khan disclosed that he was a petty contractor who worked in the forests of J&K and Umar, a divisional commander with a terrorist outfit, 'motivated' him to come to Delhi for collecting funds, the sources said.

"He used to come to Delhi and then get in touch with the mentors of the militant outfit in Pakistan and on their instruction money was given to him by the hawala operators, which he used to take back to the state and hand over to the outfit for a commission," said an official.

Khan (44), against whom a case under Arms Act has been registered, also confessed that he had come to the capital thrice and collected hawala money worth more than Rs 13 lakh, the sources said.

The police have also informed the Enforcement Directorate for taking necessary action against Hawala operator Rakesh, they added.

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