JKCA money laundering case: ED attaches Rs 11.86 crore assets of Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar, Dec 19: Assets worth Rs 11.86 crore of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) money laundering case.

The probe agency has issued a provisional attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the attached properties are located in Jammu and Srinagar.

Two immovable assets are residential, one is a commercial property while three other plots of land have also been attached by the Enforcement Directorate.

While the book value of these attached properties is Rs 11.86 crore, their market value is about Rs 60-70 crore.

National Conference leader and also former CM Omar Abdullah said there can be no justification for the action.

"They fail the very basic test of having been acquired as the proceeds of the 'crime' being investigated," he tweeted.

The 83-year-old NC patron has been questioned by the ED in this case a number of times, the last being in October at Srinagar.

The ED had filed the money-laundering case after taking cognisance of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR and chargesheet.

The chargesheet was filed in July 2018 against Abdullah and three others for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 43 crore from grants given by the BCCI to the JKCA for promoting cricket in the state between 2002 and 2011.

The CBI has charged Abdullah, the then JKCA general secretary Md Saleem Khan, the then treasurer of the association Ahsan Ahmad Mirza and J&K Bank executive Bashir Ahmad Misgar under the Ranbir Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

The central probe agency had taken over the case from the state police in 2015 on orders of a division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.