ED questions Farooq Abdullah in money laundering case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Department (ED) on Wednesday came knocking on the doors of the National Conference President and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, who on Tuesday gave a call to convene an all party meeting on the issue of Article 35A.

The ED questioned Abdullah in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged financial irregularities in the state’s cricket association. Mr Abdullah had responded to his rival, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s call to convene an all-party meeting and present an united front against the Centre’s alleged plans to scrap Article 35A.  

According to sources Abdullah appeared before the central agency at its Chandigarh office and his statement was being recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED had filed the money laundering case after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR and charge sheet.

The charge sheet was filed in July last year against Abdullah and three others for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 43 crore from grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) for promoting the sport in the state between 2002-11. The CBI has already charged Abdullah and three others — the then JKCA general secretary Md Saleem Khan, the then treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, and J&K Bank executive Bashir Ahmad Misgar — under sections of the Ranbir Penal Code related to criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

It had taken over the case from the state police in 2015 on orders of a division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir high court. Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah have earlier denied any wrongdoing.