Court hands over JKCA probe to CBI

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 3

The J&K High Court today handed over the investigation of the multi-crore Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) scam to the CBI, citing “lack of credibility” in the special investigation team (SIT) of the state police and the “serious allegations” made against the “beneficiaries”.

Setting a time frame, the court directed the CBI to complete within six months its probe into the scam involving former office-bearers of the JKCA, including former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.

The scam involves payment of Rs 113.67 crore by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to the state cricket body from 2002 to 2011 and subsequent misappropriation of funds of over Rs 40 crore.

The investigation so far conducted by the SIT has revealed the existence of bogus accounts. It has also disclosed that the cricket body received Rs 1.32 crore as additional income in the shape of tournament fee, fee from affiliated clubs and interest from the bank deposits during this period.

The decision to hand over the case investigation to the CBI was announced today by a division bench of Chief Justice NN Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice B.L Bhat, which is hearing a PIL by two cricketers seeking investigation into the FIR registered with regard to the cricket scam in 2012.

Though the original FIR into the case named only two accused, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, former general secretary and former treasurer, respectively, of the JKCA, but the petitioners also levelled allegations against former Chief Minister and former president of the JKCA Farooq Abdullah and also made him a respondent in the PIL.

“Having regard for the quantum and magnitude of the scam involving a huge loss of public money and failure of the state investigating agency to conduct the investigation with speed, fairness and objectivity and given the inordinate delay in concluding the investigation coupled with lack of credibility in the state investigating agency and also taking into consideration the serious allegations made against the beneficiaries involved, including the influential and mighty, we are of the considered opinion that it is a fit case where the investigation must be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation for purposes of a fair and result-oriented investigation,” the bench observed in its orders passed today, while asking the CBI to complete the probe within a six-month period.

The JKCA scam surfaced in March 2012 following reports alleging that crores of rupees of the BCCI intended for promotion of the sport in the state was diverted to different accounts by JKCA office-bearers with mala fide intention.

Farooq Abdullah, who was ousted as the JKCA president last month and replaced by Sports Minister Imran Ansari, in his 30-page response to the High court had denied the the allegations in the PIL as ‘reckless & baseless” and was for a “time-bound” probe by the SIT.