The police in the United Kingdom have arrested an Indian-origin woman banker from London, in what is being dubbed an anti-terrorism operation.
Kuntal Patel, employed at the Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf, was arrested on Sunday and subsequently charged with attempted murder following a raid at her east London home.
The raid was conducted by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Kuntal, 36, is the daughter of magistrate Meena Patel, who sits on the bench at Thames Magistrates’ Court in east London.
“Kuntal Patel…has tonight been charged with attempted murder following an investigation by the Counter-terrorism Command. She is due to appear in custody at Westminster magistrates court tomorrow, Thursday, 30 January,” the police said in a statement yesterday.
A Met Police statement had earlier stated that inquiries were “ongoing as part of an intelligence-led pre-planned operation”.
Ron Manley, a local councillor who has known the Patels for more than 20 years, described them as an “upstanding family”.
“Meena is a magistrate and used to work for a local authority, Kuntal works in the City and her younger daughter Poonam is a pharmacist. They are a Hindu family and I’ve known the two girls since they were at primary school. They have always been very polite, very nice girls,” he told ‘The Daily Telegraph’.
The son of Foreign Office diplomat Nicholas Sutcliffe, James, was also arrested as part of the operation earlier but has been released without charge triggering claims that counter-terror officials may have raided the wrong house.
