JKCA case: ED quizzes Farooq Abdullah again

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 21

Former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah was again questioned today by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its probe into an alleged multi-crore scam in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

The 83-year-old NC leader appeared before the agency for the second time this week and was questioned for over five hours as he reached the ED’s Raj Bagh office in Srinagar at around 11 am. The questioning took place on a day when Abdullah was celebrating his 84th birthday.

On October 19 also the ED had questioned the octogenarian leader for six hours and recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

After the questioning on Monday, which took place four days after J&K’s mainstream political parties, including the NC and the PDP, formed the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, Abdullah had said he was not worried and would cooperate in the probe. He was questioned for the first time in July last year in Chandigarh.

The ED is learnt to have been questioning Abdullah about his role and decisions taken when the alleged fraud took place in the association when he was the JKCA president.

The ED’s case is based on an FIR filed by the CBI, which booked former JKCA office-bearers, including general secretary Mohammed Saleem Khan and former treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza.