Four Booked In Maharashtra's Beed For Raising Over Rs 4 Crore Illegally To 'Support' Palestine; Two Held
Probe continues to ascertain if the money collected was meant for terror-related activities or the accused had links with any banned organisation.
Published : January 9, 2026 at 9:28 AM IST
Mumbai: Maharashtra Police have booked four persons from Beed district for allegedly cheating people by collecting over Rs four crore falsely claiming to provide humanitarian aid to Palestine during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
The accused have been identified as Igran Kalim Sheikh, resident of Sadar Bazar in Ambajogai; Mujjamil Noor Syed of Patrud in Majalgaon; Ahmeduddin Kaiser Qazi from Kage, Beed; and Taufiq Javed Qazi, resident of Andheri.
As per sources, the accused opened a fake trust 'Gulzar-e-Raza', through which they collected crores of rupees from the public in the name of religious work and cheated banks and the Income Tax Department using fake documents. The entire matter was exposed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) after a detailed investigation.
According to officials, the accused started raising money after the war began on October 7, 2023, which has so far claimed more than 71,000 Palestinian lives and left over 1.7 lakh people injured. Even after a ceasefire was announced in October 2025, about 400 deaths have been reported in Gaza.
Acting on specific intelligence inputs about possible terror funding, the local police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad conducted a search operation in Patrud village of Majalgaon taluka. During the probe, it was found that the accused had collected large sums of money from the public by telling them that it would be used to support Palestinians affected by the war.
How The Fraud Was Detected
The Sambhajinagar unit of ATS regularly checks NGOs and trusts in Beed district. During this process, 'Gulzar-e-Raza' came under suspicion as it was collecting donations for religious activities through its website and social media pages. During technical investigation, the ATS found that the trust had opened five bank accounts in Axis Bank's Latur branch. For this, the trustees allegedly used the registration number of another trust, 'Faizan-e-Kanzul Iman', registered with the Waqf Board in Ahilyanagar, and showed it as their own. It was also found that while registering on NITI Aayog's Darpan portal, the trust used a fake registration number.
The ATS revealed that the trust had embezzled Rs 4,73,67,000. Following this, a cheating case was registered against the four trustees at the Majalgaon Rural Police Station.
“The funds were deposited in the bank account of a trust that was not registered with the Charity Commissioner, making the entire collection illegal,” PTI reported quoting a police official.
While two of the four accused have been arrested so far, investigation is underway to find whether the accused had links with any banned organisation and if the money collected was meant for terror-related activities.
When contacted, Majalgaon Rural Police Inspector Balak Koli confirmed that a case has been registered but refused to give further details. Attempts to contact Additional Superintendent of Police Chetna Tidke were also unsuccessful as she did not respond to calls.
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