Facing PMLA case, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s mother Gulshan Nazir quizzed

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, August 18

A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned Gulshan Nazir, mother of J&K ex-CM and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti in relation to a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Nazir appeared before the agency in Srinagar and recorded her statement.

Sources said Gulshan Nazir, who is in her late seventies, came to the ED office along with her daughter at the Civil Lines area in Srinagar.

Nazir had been summoned on three earlier occasions, a move which was termed by the PDP as a political vendetta against the party, which has been opposing the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state of J&K.

According to the ED, the case is linked to the recovery of at least two diaries after raids on an alleged associate of Mehbooba Mufti. The diaries contain the details of some purported payments made from the CM’s discretionary fund in alleged contravention of rules, when the PDP was in power.

A few lakh rupees from these funds are alleged to have been transferred to the accounts of Nazir and some others, and the ED wanted to question her about it, sources said.

After the questioning, Mehbooba tweeted, “In New India, being summoned by agencies like NIA and ED has become a ritual for whoever disagrees with the government’s divisive agenda and policies. In my mother’s case, the chronology is quite clear.”

“The last time she received a summon was when the PDP boycotted the Delimitation Commission followed by another summon when I staged a peaceful protest on August 5, criticising the illegal abrogation of Article 370,” Mehbooba said. (With PTI inputs)