Srinagar: Former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday termed the provisional attachment order of properties belonging to his father by the Enforcement Directorate as “baseless” and “without justification”, and wondered how an ancestral property could be seen as proceeds of “crime”.
In a series of tweets, Omar, who is the vice-president of the National Conference, said: “The properties attached are largely ancestral dating from the 1970s with the most recent one built before 2003. There can be no justification for the seizures because they fail the very basic test of having been acquired as the proceeds of the “crime” being investigated.”
In another tweet, junior Abdullah said: “My father has seen the media reports regarding attachment of his properties in the ongoing investigation in to the JKCA matter. Not surprisingly the media was tipped off regarding the seizure before he had received any official notice or documentation.”
In yet another tweet, Omar Abdullah said: “Dr Abdullah is in touch with his lawyers & will fight all these baseless charges in the one place that matters – a court of law, where everyone is presumed to be innocent & is entitled to a fair trial unlike in the court of the media or the court of BJP managed social media.”
Meanwhile, reacting sharply to the Enforcement Directorate move, CPI(M) leader, M Y Tarigami today said that attaching the property of Dr Abdullah is part of ‘vindictive politics practiced by the Central government to kill dissent and disagreement across the country.’
In a statement issued here today, Tarigami said that the media reports about ED attaching property of National Conference (NC) president Dr Farooq Abdullah is nothing but a political vendetta as the BJP government has been unnerved by the support of people to Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Deceleration (PAGD) in the just concluded DDC polls.
“Attaching the property of Dr Abdullah is part of vindictive politics practiced by the Central government to kill dissent and disagreement across the country and the present case has surfaced at a time when the District Development Council Polls have just concluded,” he said.
