PMLA case: ED serves summons to Kashmiri leader Shabir Shah

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh---its third so far---summons to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, who is currently in detention in Delhi.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh---its third so far---summons to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, who is currently in detention in Delhi, for his questioning in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case. The case is related to a 10-year-old case of alleged terror financing via illegal hawala channels.

Shah has agreed to appear before ED investigators at its Delhi office, according to a government source familiar with ED’s probe. This is the third summons issued against Shah by the ED as part of its probe into the alleged money-laundering aspect of an August 2005 investigation by Delhi police’s Special Cell (SC): The SC had then nabbed a suspected hawala dealer, Mohammed Aslam Wani, who claimed he had earlier allegedly given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. According to a news agency, Shah said he will come on October 12.

Wani, who is currently out on bail, has also been summoned by the ED, as part of its PMLA case against him and Shah.

The ED summons was served to Shah, who heads the Democratic Freedom Party of Jammu and Kashmir, in Delhi where he has been in detention since Saturday on his arrival to meet Pakistani National Security Advisor Sartaz Ajiz. The proposed talks between the NSAs of Pakistan and India were called off on Saturday, however.

SC had in August 2005 allegedly nabbed Wani with Rs 63 lakh received via hawala channels from West Asia, along with some ammunitions. During his questioning Wani had allegedly claimed that out of the Rs 63 lakh, Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah, Rs 10 lakh to terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Srinagar-based ‘Area Commander’ Abu Baqar, while the rest was to be pocketed by him as his commission.

Wani, originally from Srinagar, had alleged that he had delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his relatives in several installments during 2005-6.

While ED has maintained its earlier summonses were not allegedly responded to by Shah, the latter had in the past told media the probe was allegedly politically motivated.

Wani, who ran a computer shop, allegedly came in contact with Shah early in 2004 when he had sold him a computer. Wani claimed Shah had asked him to deliver 'hawala money to him from Delhi, for which the latter could take three per cent as commission.

Shah had also allegedly given Wani the phone number of one Saifi, based in Muzaffarabad of the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) who gave instructions on the hawala transactions.