ED attaches Rs2.6 crore assets in JKCA fund embezzlement case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 29

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a provisional attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to seize assets worth Rs 2.6 crore in a case pertaining to alleged embezzlement of funds of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

Officials in the agency said the attachment order was issued under the PMLA against former treasurer of the JKCA Ahsan Ahmad Mirza and its finance committee member Mir Mansoor Gazanffer. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who is presently in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), was earlier questioned by the ED in the case.

Giving details of the attachments, the ED in a statement said, “They consist of three FDRs (fixed deposit receipts) totalling Rs 1.29 crore with J&K Bank branch in Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi, in the name of Mirza Sons, a partnership firm of Mirza and his father, and 11 kanals of land with structure and commercial shopping complex at Pandrethan, Srinagar, worth Rs 1.31 crore.”

The ED took up the case following an FIR by the CBI in the case in which the latter probe agency booked former office-bearers of the JKCA, including general secretary Mohammad Saleem Khan and Mirza.

The CBI later filed a chargesheet against Farooq Abdullah, Khan, Mirza, Mir Manzoor Gazanffer Ali, Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh (former accountant of the JKCA) for “misappropriation of JKCA funds amounting to Rs 43.69 crore” from grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to the association for promoting the sport in the state between 2002-11.

The ED said its probe found that during financial years 2005–2006 to 2011–2012 (up to December 2011) the JKCA received Rs 94.06 crore from the BCCI in three different bank accounts. “However, several other bank accounts were opened in the name of the JKCA into which these funds were transferred and such other bank accounts along with the existing bank accounts were later used for laundering funds of the JKCA,” it has alleged.

Besides, the ED has alleged that Mirza transferred huge amounts into his personal bank accounts and then these amounts were further transferred or withdrawn in cash. “Out of the laundered amounts, Rs 1.31 crore was received by Gazanffer, who was a member of the finance committee of the JKCA between 2006 and 2009 and the committee was arbitrarily constituted by Farooq Abdullah, the then president of the JKCA,” it charged.

Order issued under PMLA

• Officials in the agency said the attachment order was issued under the PMLA against former treasurer of the JKCA Ahsan Ahmad Mirza and its finance committee member Mir Mansoor Gazanffer.
• Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who is presently in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), was earlier questioned by the ED in the case.