Jammu and Kashmir HC refers Abdullah’s plea challenging ED jurisdiction to division bench

A single-judge bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court has referred National Conference (NC) president and MP Farooq Abdullah’s plea challenging the jurisdiction of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to attach his properties to the division bench.

On December 19 last year, the ED had attached three houses and a commercial building belonging to octogenarian Abdullah in Srinagar, Baramulla and Jammu under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Besides, houses and a commercial building, land belonging to the NC leader had also been attached at four places in J&K.

On March 6, Abdullah challenged the jurisdiction of the ED in the High Court.

On March 18, the bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur referred the case to the division bench after observing that the genesis of the proceedings against the petitioner Abdullah and a former treasurer of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) Ahsan Ahmad Mirza lie in the case which is pending trial before the designated court.

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The issues, the court said, being common, were therefore required to be considered together.

Abdullah in his plea has submitted that his attached properties are admittedly unrelated to the alleged criminal activity mentioned in the Final Report/FIR and is a “continuing violation of his fundamental rights.”

“All properties attached by the ED are either ancestral or acquired by the petitioner prior to the date of the alleged offences. The attached properties were acquired prior to the alleged commission of the offences, and hence were not involved in any alleged money-laundering or related criminal activity,” the petition reads.

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The JKCA had received Rs 109.78 crore from the BCCI from 2005 to 2011 for the promotion of cricket in the erstwhile state.

The ED probe reveals that from 2006 to 2012, when Abdullah was President of the JKCA, he misused his position and clout by illegal appointments of office bearers to whom he gave financial powers for the purpose of laundering of the JKCA funds. “Investigation clearly brings out that Abdullah was instrumental as well as beneficiary of the laundered funds of the JKCA,” the ED probe reveals.

It further says the JKCA funds to the tune of more than Rs 45 crores has been siphoned, which includes heavy cash withdrawals of around Rs 25 crores, "with no corresponding justification.”