Money laundering: ED to file fresh case against Shabir Shah

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 27

With a local court granting the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to have seven-day custody of separatist leader Shabir Shah, the probe agency is all set register a separate case against him under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) and will record his statements, which will stand as evidence in the court of law.

Shah was picked by the ED from Srinagar on Monday night in connection with a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror funding. His arrest assumed significance, as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also cracked down on seven other Hurriyat leaders in connection with its probe into terror funding.

“Now we have got the permission from the court to have custodial interrogation of Shah. Following the interrogation and recording of his statement, we are planning to register a separate case against him under the stringent provisions of the PMLA. The statement under the Act will be admissible in the court of law as evidence,” an ED official confirmed.

Earlier, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had registered an FIR in 2005 against Shah and an alleged hawala dealer, Mohammed Aslam Wani, who after being arrested by the police, had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to the separatist leader.

It is learnt that the enforcement agency is also contemplating to initiate proceedings to attach Shah’s property. But, it will attach properties worth only the amount claimed by Wani in his interrogation to the Delhi Police, sources confirmed. So far Shah, however, denied the allegations and claimed that he was already being kept under house arrest. The court had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant against Shah after the ED claimed that he was evading summons issued to him in pursuance of the August 2005 case.