Updated: December 19, 2020 8:25:11 pm
Farooq Abdullah, former prime minister of J&K and head of the CPN. (Archive)
The DE has attached assets worth Rs 11.86 million from former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah and others in connection with their money laundering investigation linked to alleged financial irregularities at the Jammu Cricket Association and Kashmir, official sources said on Saturday.
They said that the agency has issued a provisional freezing order under the Money Laundering Prevention Act and that the attached properties are located in Jammu and Srinagar.
Two real estate is residential, one is commercial property, while three other parcels of land have also been seized by the Directorate of Enforcement, they said.
While the book value of these attached properties is Rs 11.86 crore, their market value is approximately Rs 60-70 crore, they added.
The 83-year-old NC employer has been questioned by the Emergency Department, in this case, several times, most recently in October in Srinagar.
Omar’s terms ED deputy order ‘unsubstantiated’
Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, called the order of provisional seizure of property belonging to his father by the Directorate of Enforcement “unfounded” and wondered how an ancestral property could be considered the product of a “crime”.
In a series of tweets, Omar, who is the vice president of the National Conference, said that his father, Farooq Abdullah, “is in contact with his lawyers and will fight all these baseless charges in the only place that matters: a court of law. . ”.
The attached properties are largely ancestral dating from the 1970s with the most recent being built prior to 2003. There can be no justification for the seizures because they fail the basic test of being acquired as a “crime” proceeds that is investigated.
– Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) December 19, 2020
He said that everyone is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial “as opposed to what happens in the media court or the BJP-run social media court.”
Omar expressed amazement that the attached properties are largely ancestral dating back to the 1970s with the most recent being built before 2003.
“There can be no justification for the seizures because they fail the very basic proof that they were acquired as a product of the ‘crime’ under investigation,” he said.
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