Farooq Abdullah’s properties worth over Rs 11 crore attached in JKCA

The attached properties include three residential houses -- at Gupkar Road, Srinagar; Tehsil Katipora, Tanmarg, and one at Bhatindi, Village Sunjwan (Jammu) as well as commercial buildings in the Residency Road area of Srinagar. Besides, land at four different places in J&K has also been attached, according to a statement issued by the ED.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED)  on Saturday attached properties of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah valued around Rs 11.86 crore in connection with its money laundering probe linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), officials said on Saturday.

Farooq Abdullah was questioned by the ED in July and October this year. (PTI file photo)

The attached properties include three residential houses -- at Gupkar Road, Srinagar; Tehsil Katipora, Tanmarg, and one at Bhatindi, Village Sunjwan (Jammu) as well as commercial buildings in the Residency Road area of Srinagar. Besides, land at four different places in J&K has also been attached, according to a statement issued by the ED.

The agency said among the attached properties, the residence and land of Dr Farooq Abdullah at Gupkar Road and commercial buildings at Residency Road were on state land obtained on lease. “The other attached house at Bhatindi, Village Sunjwan had been constructed by Farooq Abdullah after grabbing the state land and forest land,” the ED said.

Reacting to the development, Farooq Abdullah’s son and NC vice president Omar Abdullah said in a tweet, “The properties attached are largely ancestral dating from the 1970s with the most recent one built before 2003. There can be no justification for the seizures because they fail the very basic test of having been acquired as the proceeds of the ‘crime’ being investigated.”

“Dr Abdullah is in touch with his lawyers & will fight all these baseless charges in the one place that matters -- a court of law, where everyone is presumed to be innocent & is entitled to a fair trial unlike in the court of the media or the court of BJP managed social media,” Omar said in another tweet.

Farooq Abdullah was questioned by the ED in July and October this year.

The ED statement further said that between 2005 and 2006 to December 2011, JKCA received funding totalling Rs 109.78 crore from the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India ).“Dr Farooq Abdullah, between 2006 and January 2012 (when he was president of JKCA), misused his position and clout by illegal appointments of office bearer at JKCA to whom he gave financial powers for the purpose of laundering of JKCA funds,” the ED statement said.

“Despite existing regular bank account of JKCA, six new bank accounts were opened for parking of JKCA funds and siphoning of the same. One dormant bank account in the name of Kashmir Wing of JKCA was also made operational for the same purpose,” the agency said.

The ED has claimed that a total of Rs 45 crore was siphoned off, which includes cash withdrawals of Rs 25 crore “with no corresponding justification”.

“Investigations disclose that for the purpose of generation of proceeds of crime, JKCA funds were layered by way of complex interbank transfers in all the bank accounts of JKCA and also by transfer to several personal bank accounts, followed by siphoning of the funds,” the ED statement added.

The matter came to light in the year 2012 when JKCA treasurer Manzoor Wazir filed a complaint to the Jammu and Kashmir police against former general secretary Mohammad Saleem Khan and former treasurer Ahsan Mirza.

The J&K high court in 2015 asked the CBI to conduct an investigation into the matter. The CBI filed a charge sheet against Farooq Abdullah, Khan, Mirza, Mir Manzoor Gazanffer Ali, Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh (former accountant of JKCA) for “misappropriation of JKCA funds amounting to Rs 43.69 crore” from grants given by the BCCI to the association for promoting the sport in the state between 2002-11.