Srinagar: The J&K High Court on Monday heard and listed for continuation in the next week the former chief minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s petition challenging the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) order that attached his residential and commercial properties.
Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur heard the petition of Abdullah and ordered its continuation on 18th of March.
The ED had in December 2020 attached assets worth Rs 11.86 crore of Abdullah in connection with his alleged money laundering case linked to “financial irregularities” in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).
Abdullah had on 27th of February filed a writ petition before the J&K High Court in which he has challenged the ED order attaching his residential and commercial properties in Srinagar, Ganderbal, Tangmarg and Jammu.
The petition was listed for hearing on 5th of March but Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey recused from hearing it and the case was heard today by the bench of Jutice Thakur.
The petition informed the court that it was at the instance of Farooq Abdullah, as president of JKCA, that an in-house committee of Association was formed to investigate the matter. The committee found two office-bearers guilty of financial misappropriation and accordingly a case was registered in the local police station.
Challenging the provisional attachment order of the ED, it contended that the commercial property attached by the central probe agency at Srinagar was shown even in records of concerned Estate department as undivided property held by the entire family of the petitioner (Abdullah) adding the lease was renewed in 1981.
The land at Ganderbal district and at Tangmarg attached by the ED — the petitioner contended that the pieces of land were inherited from his mother Begum Akbar Jehan.
In respect to the land and house at Jammu, Abdullah contended that it was purchased from three people and was mutated in 1998.
Abdullah stated that he had taken a loan of Rs 10 lakh from Jammu and Kashmir Bank for construction of the attached house.
Abdullah has also challenged the authority of the ED in saying that on the date of the registration of the ECIR (Enforcement Commission Information Report) and the initiation of investigation, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was governed by the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, 1956, and had special status under Article 370 of the Constitution of India.
