JKCA Case: Court Quashes PMLA Charges Against Dr Farooq Abdullah, Others

The court said no predicate offence was made against the individuals and hence the charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet filed by the ED are quashed, reported PTI.

Earlier, the ED had named National Conference chief 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.

Earlier, the court, after hearing arguments, had reserved the judgement on August 7 in the case.

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

The CBI charge sheet filed against Farooq 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.

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

The probe agency 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.

In September 2019, 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 has been questioned multiple times by the agency in the case.

The federal probe agency had attached assets belonging to Abdullah and others worth Rs 21.55 crore under three separate orders issued by it in the past.