National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah is being questioned by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in the Srinagar office in connection with his investigation into the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) scam, familiar officials said. with development, prompting his party to condemn development.
Farooq Abdullah’s son, Omar Abdullah, said the interrogation was political revenge and was related to the alliance forged by six Jammu and Kashmir parties on restoring Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “The party will respond to this summons from the ED shortly. This is nothing short of a political vendetta that comes days after the formation of the Popular Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration. To be clear, there are no raids on Dr. Sahib’s residence, ”Omar Abdullah posted.
He was referring to the alliance forged by six parties from Jammu and Kashmir to restore the special status of the old state as it existed prior to August 5 last year. The statement came after a meeting at Farooq Abdullah’s home and was attended by PDP Chairman Mehbooba Mufti, Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Lone, Peoples Movement leader Javaid Mir, the leader of the CPI (M), Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, and the vice president of the Awami National Conference, Muzaffar Shah. Farooq called the meeting two days after Mehbooba’s release.
Ten officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), including Abdullah, are charged with turning the sports body into a lending agency and operating various bogus accounts between 2005 and 2012 when the scam was discovered.
The scam came to light in March 2012 when JKCA Treasurer Manzoor Wazir filed a police complaint against former Secretary General Mohammad Saleem Khan and former Treasurer Ahsan Mirza. Soon, a list of around 50 names linked to the financial scandal was published. Abdullah lost the position of JKCA president after holding it for more than three decades.
ED attached assets worth Rs 2.6 crore in a money laundering case related to the alleged misappropriation of funds from JKCA, the central agency said in a statement issued in February. An interim asset seizure order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was issued against former JKCA treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza and his finance committee member Mir Mansoor Gazanffer, it said.
The ED case is based on the first information report from the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), as part of which the latest investigative agency registered former JKCA officials, including Secretary General Mohd Saleem Khan and Mirza. The CBI filed a charge sheet against Farooq Abdullah, Khan, Mirza, Mir Manzoor Gazanffer Ali, Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh (former JKCA accountant) for “misappropriation of JKCA funds worth 43.69 million rupees “from grants awarded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to the association for the promotion of the sport in the state between 2002-11.
ED’s investigation found that during the financial years 2005–2006 to 2011–2012 (through December 2011) JKCA received Rs 94.06 crore from BCCI in three different bank accounts. “However, several other bank accounts were opened in the name of JKCA to which these funds were transferred. These other bank accounts, along with the existing bank accounts, were later used to launder JKCA funds, ”ED had alleged.
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