JKCA: Rs7-cr worth assets attached in PMLA case

New Delhi, March 3

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it had issued a provisional attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to seize properties worth Rs 7.25 crore of Ahsan Ahmad Mirza as part of its ongoing investigation into financial irregularities “committed by office-bearers” of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

This is the third attachment order issued by the ED in this case. NC leader Farooq Abdullah’s property was provisionally attached in December 2020 and this was challenged in the J&K High Court.

Abdullah was the JKCA president from 2001 to 2012 and the scam being probed by the CBI and the ED is about “financial misappropriation” between 2004 and 2009.

In an official statement, the ED said properties worth Rs 14.32 crore had already been attached previously — Rs 2.46-crore assets of Mirza and Mir Manzoor Ghazanfar, and Rs 11.86-crore assets of Abdullah.

Notwithstanding the challenge to the order by Abdullah, the adjudicating authority confirmed the provisional attachment of the earlier two orders. “The adjudicating authority has already confirmed the provisional attachment orders,” the statement read.

The ED claims that its probe has so far “revealed that accused “Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, in connivance with others, had misappropriated the cricket body’s funds to the tune of Rs 51.90 crore”.