Enforcement Directorate chargesheets Farooq Abdullah in J&K cricket scam case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a fresh chargesheet against former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) fund scam case.

In an official statement, the agency said the prosecution complaint (equivalent to a police chargesheet) was filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Srinagar on June 4. The ED said it had also named Ahsan Ahmad Mirza and Mir Manzoor Gazanffer, both former treasurers of the JKCA, and some others as accused in the chargesheet.

The court has summoned the accused to appear before it on August 27, it said.

Mirza was arrested by the ED in September 2019 and a chargesheet was filed against him in November that year. The trial is under way. Farooq has been questioned multiple times by the agency in the case.

The ED has attached assets belonging to him and others worth Rs 21.55 crore under three separate provisional orders.

“The case relates to the siphoning off the funds of the JKCA by way of transfer to various personal bank accounts of unrelated parties, including those of office-bearers of the association, and by way of unexplained cash withdrawals from its bank accounts,” the ED statement read. The PMLA case is based on a 2018 chargesheet filed by the CBI against the same accused.

The CBI chargesheet alleged the "misappropriation of JKCA funds amounting to Rs 43.69 crore" from grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to promote the sport in the erstwhile state between 2002 and 2011.

Misappropriation of Rs 46.3 crore

• Between 2011 and 2012, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had given Rs 112 crore for the promotion of cricket in Jammu and Kashmir
• It has been alleged that there has been a misappropriation of Rs 46.3 crore by the accused

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