J&K HC quashes ED charge sheets against Farooq Abdullah in JKCA case

Srinagar, Aug 14 (IANS) J&K and Ladakh High Court on Wednesday quashed the charge sheets filed against former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and others by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering probe linked to irregularities in J&K Cricket Association (JKCA).

The order passed by a single bench headed by Justice Sanjeev Kumar said no predicate offence was made out against the individuals and hence the charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet filed by the ED are quashed.

ED had named Farooq Abdullah, Ahsan Ahmad Mirza (former treasurer of JKCA), Mir Manzoor Gazanffer (another ex-treasurer of the JKCA) and some others as accused in the charge sheet.

Those listed in the charge sheet had moved the High Court seeking its quashing.

Shariq J Reyaz, representing Mirza and Gazanffer, had moved the High Court saying that the ED had no jurisdiction over the case and the charge sheets filed against his clients should be quashed.

The court, after hearing arguments, had reserved the judgement on August 7. The ED was represented by Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju through virtual mode.

Reyaz said the court accepted “our plea that no predicate offence was made out” and that the ED had no jurisdiction over the case.

Mirza was arrested by the ED in September 2019 and a charge sheet was filed against him in November that year and the trial in that complaint is going on.

Farooq Abdullah had been summoned for questioning many times by the ED in the case.

ED had attached assets belonging to Farooq Abdullah and others worth Rs 21.55 crore under three separate orders issued by it in the past.

The agency’s case is based on a 2018 charge sheet filed by the CBI against the same accused.

The CBI charge sheet filed against Abdullah, Mirza, Gazanffer and former accountants Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh alleged “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.

The ED had earlier said its probe found that JKCA received Rs 94.06 crore from BCCI in three different bank accounts during the financial years 2005-2006 to 2011-2012 (up to December 2011).

It had alleged that several other bank accounts were opened in the name of the JKCA into which the funds were transferred. The bank accounts along with the existing bank accounts were later used for laundering JKCA funds.

The high court order on Wednesday has come as a big relief for the octogenarian Farooq Abdullah who remained under the cloud of corruption because of the ED charge sheet for many years.

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