Enforcement Directorate raids 7 locations in J&K in money laundering case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 21

The Enforcement Directorate today said it had conducted searches at seven locations in the Kashmir valley in connection with its probe into money laundering linked to alleged suspicious transactions in J&K Bank.

According to officials in the agency, the Central financial probe agency covered a total of seven locations — six in Srinagar and one in Anantnag district. The searches were conducted under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added.

Identifying the premises of individuals, the ED officials said, the agency raided Mohammad Ibrahim Dar, Murtaza Enterprises, Azad Agro Traders, M&M Cottage Industries and Mohammad Sultan Teli, who were “involved” in the hospitality and agro-based industries, civil construction and real estate businesses.

“The searches resulted in the recovery of evidence of money laundering as the bank accounts have been found to be used for routing suspicious transactions,” a senior ED official said.

The Central financial probe agency is probing the case after studying an earlier FIR filed by the CID of the UT police in Srinagar against officials of J&K Bank, unidentified public servants, private persons and others for suspicious transactions in various bank accounts.

The CID FIR, the ED officials said, alleged that bank accounts were used for routing money of public servants as well as some private parties. Certain bank officials, in connivance with these public servants, deliberately omitted to raise the alerts as required under anti-money laundering norms, they alleged quoting the CID FIR.

Later in a statement the agency said, during the course of its probe “so far it has been revealed that the transactions in many of these bank accounts maintained with J&K Bank were not genuine and these accounts were utilised for the purpose of laundering money”.

Sleuths of the ED were recording the statement of the people covered in the searches “to unravel the source of huge credits and debits in their accounts”, they said, adding: “Recovered incriminating documents and soft data are also being analysed”.

6 sites in Srinagar, one in Anantnag

• The Enforcement Directorate covered seven locations — six in Srinagar and one in Anantnag district. The searches were conducted under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
• The agency raided Mohammad Ibrahim Dar, Murtaza Enterprises, Azad Agro Traders, M&M Cottage Industries and Mohammad Sultan Teli, who were “involved” in the hospitality and agro-based industries, civil construction and real estate businesses.

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