ED attaches Rs 2.45 cr properties in coop bank loan fraud case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 14

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached several immovable properties, houses worth Rs 2.45 crore, related to Mohammad Shafi Dar and Abdul Hamid Hajam, in the Jammu and Kashmir State Cooperative Bank (JKSTCB) loan fraud case of 2019.

A loan to the tune of Rs 223 crore was fraudulent sanctioned and disbursed to a fake cooperative society named River Jehlum Cooperative House Building Society, Shivpora in Srinagar, by the then Chairman of the JKSTCB and others.

Rs 223 cr was sanctioned to fake society

• A loan to the tune of Rs 223 crore was fraudulent sanctioned and disbursed to a fake cooperative society, River Jehlum Cooperative House Building Society, Shivpora in Srinagar.
• The ED had initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR and consequent chargesheets filed by LEA, Srinagar.
• The then Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir State Cooperative Bank (JKSTCB) was allegedly involved in the 2019 case.
• This is the second provisional attachment in this case. Earlier, immovable properties worth Rs 193.46 crore were provisionally attached in Dec 2023.
• Also, in January this year, prosecution under the PMLA was launched against six persons before a PMLA court in Srinagar.

The ED had initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR and consequent chargesheets filed by LEA, Srinagar, invoking various Sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) and the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption Act (JK PC Act) Samvat-2006 against five persons.

The five accused were identified as Hilal Ahmad Mir, Chairman of River Jehlum Cooperative House Building Society, Abdul Hamid Hajam, Secretary of River Jehlum Cooperative House Building Society, Mohammad Mujeeb Ur Rehman Ghassi, the then Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Jammu and Kashmir, Syed Ashiq Hussain, the then Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, J&K, and Mohammad Shafi Dar, the then Chairman of the JKSTCB.

The probe had revealed that Hilal Ahmad Mir, Abdul Hamid Hajam, Mohammad Mujeeb Ur Rehman Ghassi, Syed Ashiq Hussain and Mohammad Shafi Dar, in connivance with each other, had managed to fraudulently get loan of Rs 250 crore sanctioned from the JKSTCB in the name of a fake society, River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society. They allegedly siphoned off this amount as payments made towards purchase of land parcels, without any collateral security and ignored all the regulatory procedures in a criminal conspiracy relating to the offence of money laundering in violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

This is the second provisional attachment in this case. Earlier, immovable properties worth Rs 193.46 crore were provisionally attached in December 2023.

Also, in January this year, prosecution under the PMLA was launched against six persons, including the aforesaid accused, before a PMLA court in Srinagar, which has taken cognisance of the same.

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