Farooq Abdullah appears before ED in JCKA money laundering case again

The last round of questioning took place four days after Jammu and Kashmir's mainstream political parties formed the People's Alliance for 'Gupkar Declaration'

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned regional National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah a second time this week in connection with a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore scam in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

Flamboyant Abdullah, who is celebrating his 84th birthday today, reached the ED’s Rajbagh office in Srinagar at 11 am, where he is being questioned in connection with alleged misappropriation of Rs over 43 crore when he was the president of the JKCA.

Also read: Abdullah's interrogation part of Centre's 'vindictive' politics: People's Alliance

On October 19 Abdullah, who represents Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency in the Parliament, was questioned by the ED for seven hours. After the questioning on Monday, Abdullah had said he was not worried and would cooperate in the probe.

“My fate will be decided by the court when they put the case into the court,” he had said after facing grilling by the ED sleuths.

The ED is understood to be questioning Abdullah about his role and decisions taken when the alleged scam took place in the association when he was the JKCA president.

The last round of questioning took place four days after regional mainstream political parties in Kashmir including the NC and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, met at Abdullah’s residence and formed People’s Alliance for ‘Gupkar Declaration’ to restore the special status of J&K, abrogated by the Centre on 5 August last year.

Also read: ED summons against Abdullah 'witch-hunt': NC

The ED case is based on a Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) FIR as part of which the CBI booked former office-bearers of JKCA, including general secretary Saleem Khan and Treasurer Ahsan Mirza. Abdullah was named in the scam in 2012 in which bogus money was allegedly transferred into bogus accounts created by the JKCA officials. The JKCA gets subsidies from the BCCI annually.

According to the CBI investigation, the accounts were opened in the name of the JKCA in J&K Bank and the BCCI funds were diverted to these bogus accounts and subsequently siphoned off. The BCCI had given Rs 113 crore to the JKCA from 2002 to 2011 as grant for the promotion of cricket in the region. Of this, Rs.43.69 crore was allegedly siphoned off and misappropriated by the accused.