The Enforcement Directorate (EC) has issued a fresh summons to National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah for questioning in a money-laundering case pertaining to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), official sources said Monday.
A senior officer of the agency confirmed that Farooq has been asked to depose at the ED office in Srinagar on Tuesday. The 86-year-old politician was last called by the central agency in this case on January 11, but he did not appear before it. NC chief spokesperson did not respond to queries in the matter. The agency had questioned the NC patriarch in 2019 and 2020 in connection with the case.
He is not expected to appear at the Srinagar office of the central agency this time too, sources close to him said.
The ED investigation pertains to alleged financial irregularities at the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association when Farooq was the sporting body’s president.
The MP from Srinagar was chargesheeted by the ED in this case in 2022.
The case relates to siphoning off JKCA funds of over ₹113 crore by way of transfer to various personal bank accounts of unrelated parties, including those of JKCA office-bearers, and by way of unexplained cash withdrawals from its bank accounts, the ED had said.
{{/usCountry}}The case relates to siphoning off JKCA funds of over ₹113 crore by way of transfer to various personal bank accounts of unrelated parties, including those of JKCA office-bearers, and by way of unexplained cash withdrawals from its bank accounts, the ED had said.
{{/usCountry}}The agency’s case is based on a 2018 charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the same accused.
In December 2020, the ED had attached residential and commercial properties of Farooq, worth nearly ₹12 crore, prompting the NC leader to move the Jammu and Kashmir high court. The former chief minister alleged that the properties attached were not related to the alleged crime and were either ancestral or acquired before the offence.
With PTI inputs