Won't bow before anyone: Farooq Abdullah on money-laundering case

Srinagar, Dec 23: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, who is facing an ED probe in connection with the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) money-laundering case, asserted on Wednesday that he will not bow before anyone.

Addressing party workers at the NC headquarters, Nawa-i-Subah, a day after the results of the DDC polls were announced, Abdullah, in an apparent reference to the BJP, said the saffron party thinks he will bow before it, but he will not.

"They think Farooq Abdullah will bow before them. I will only bow my head before my god and no one else. He is my creator. They are trying to induce fear, but they do not know Farooq Abdullah. I am the Sher-e-Kashmir's (NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) son," he said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 11.86 crore of Abdullah in connection with the JKCA case on Saturday.

The agency said after conducting investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it found out that between 2005-06 and 2012, the JKCA received funding totalling to Rs 109.78 crore from the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI).

A visibly emotional Abdullah, who turned 83 in October, asked the NC workers not to be afraid of challenges.

"We will face challenges as the god poses challenges before us to test us. Had there been no challenges, I will not have read Quran the way I did while in custody. So do not fear the challenges," he said.

The NC president said the DDC poll results have proven that the steps taken by the party and the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) were in the right direction.

"We did not campaign. We did not go out to do propaganda or raise flags. But we believed in the people and that if our actions are right, then the god will help us. It has been proven that our actions were right. This is the success of the party workers and every citizen of Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

The PAGD, an alliance of several mainstream parties, including the NC and the PDP, seeking the restoration of the erstwhile state's special status, which was revoked by the Centre in August last year -- contested the maiden DDC polls in Jammu and Kashmir under a seat-sharing arrangement.

Abdullah said forging the alliance was not easy but the decision was taken for the greater good of the people.

"We gave many sacrifices. The hearts of my colleagues were broken over seat-sharing. But we had to render those sacrifices for the greater good. People supported us and understood the aim behind the alliance.

"They (BJP) were saying the NC does not exist anymore. Same things were said about us in 1992 after militancy erupted. Then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao had said the NC was nowhere. But then, they came begging to me in London to save them," he said, adding, "Let me tell them that the NC was here, is here and will remain here."