Srinagar: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah was Tuesday summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to appear before the probe agency on February 13 in connection with a money laundering case.
Earlier on January 11 octogenarian Abdullah, who represents Srinagar seat in the Lok Sabha, was asked by the ED to appear before it in the same case, but he sought exemption on health grounds.
The case involves siphoning of funds belonging to the J&K Cricket Association, which were transferred to personal bank accounts of various people including the office bearers of the association, when Abdullah was heading the association. Abdullah was charge-sheeted by the central agency in the case in 2022.
The ED case is based on a 2018 charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the same accused. The scam allegedly took place when Abdullah was the president of the association between 2001 and 2012. The flamboyant Abdullah has been questioned several times by the CBI and ED in the case in the last four years.
He is the latest Opposition leader - after former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal - to be called in for questioning ahead of the Parliament elections due in April-May. Soren has now been arrested after repeated no-show.
On December 19, 2020, the ED had attached property worth Rs 11.86 crore belonging to the NC president in connection with an alleged money laundering case in the JKCA.
The ED statement had then said that from 2005 to 2011, the JKCA received Rs 109.78 crore from the BCCI.
In March 2021, Abdullah had approached the Jammu and Kashmir High Court against an ED order attaching his properties. Party MP Hasnain Masoodi had then said properties attached by the ED were either ancestral or acquired before the alleged offence took place.
Published 12 February 2024, 14:14 IST