Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering case. The National Conference patron was quizzed by ED officials in Chandigarh. Several office bearers of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association and J&K bank were also questioned by ED.
The case relates to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association scam under the PMLA. According to allegations, ₹43 crore was illegally siphoned off from JKCA when Farooq Abdullah was its president. The misappropriated amount came from a fund of ₹113 crore given by BCCI to promote cricket in the state.
In 2015, the J&K High Court had handed over the case to CBI, while indicting the state police for failing to carry out the probe properly. According to allegations, the former CM was complicit in granting approval to operate two bogus accounts of JKCA, which had allowed one accused Ahsan Mirza to remain in control of finances of the sports body even though he had ceased to be a treasurer after the 2011 elections.
The CBI had questioned Abdullah last in connection with the case. The agency had filed a chargesheet in the case in July last year where it had named Farooq Abdullah and three others involved in the embezzlement of BCCI funds through JKCA. The CBI chargesheet had alleged that the then JKCA president had connived with the treasurer of JKCA and others for undue siphoning off and misappropriation of funds. The three other persons accused in the case are the then JKCA general secretary Md Saleem Khan, the then treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, as also J&K Bank executive Bashir Ahmad Misgar.
Farooq Abdullah has been denying any role in the scam, although he has not denied that the scam took place. In fact, his party has been saying that it was him who had first sought the registration of an FIR relating to the case in the first place.
