New Delhi: A Delhi court has ordered the framing of money laundering charges against jailed chief of banned JKLF Yasin Malik, separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, Baramulla MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid and four others for allegedly drawing funds from Pakistan for secessionist activities.
The six have been accused of using hawala channels to obtain funding for their activities.
In an order dated September 9, Special Judge Prashant Sharma said, “I conclude that prima facie, there is sufficient material on record based upon which strong suspicion is raised against all seven accused persons namely, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Naval Kishore Kapoor, M/s Trison Farms and Constructions Pvt Ltd, Mohd Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Alam and Abdul Rashid Sheikh, for which said accused persons have to be charged with offence under Section 3 of PMLA, punishable under Section 4 of PMLA.”
Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) deals with the offence of money laundering.
The court had posted the matter for formal framing of charges on September 30.
According to court sources, the accused could not be produced physically in court on September 30 because of security-related issues, following which the judge directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to get the charges signed by the accused in the prisons where they are incarcerated.
They said that the court has posted the matter for further proceedings on October 30.
The ED case stems from a 2017 NIA case, where the agency had invoked several charges, including of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, against the accused.
The prosecution has alleged that the accused persons were involved in receiving funds from the Pakistani establishment through hawala and from other terrorist outfits by way of various means and channels to propagate their ideology and agenda of secessionism and subversive activities prejudicial to the law of the land.
It said, “The collected money was routed through a complex system, including cash couriers, using conduits who gathered money from Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and delivered the funds to the Hurriyat leadership, including Yasin Malik, for subversive activities and for the secession of Jammu and Kashmir from India.”
The ED alleged, citing its probe, that “proceeds of crime” worth more than Rs 8.94 crore was generated, which had been received, routed, transferred, concealed, possessed, acquired and used by the accused persons in various forms and through different channels.
It said that an “incriminating” document seized from the house of one Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, who used to work as the cashier-cum-accountant with Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, showed that the foreign contributions were received by accused Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah and Masarat Alam through Watali, during 2015-2016.
“The emails received and sent from the email… used by accused Yasin Malik, indicated that he had set up an elaborate structure and mechanism across the world for raising funds for carrying out terrorist secessionist and other unlawful activities in Jammu and Kashmir in the name of freedom struggle, and those funds were then used not only to sustain his organisation JKLF, but also to fuel secessionist activities and unleash violence in Jammu and Kashmir,” the ED claimed.
It alleged that Malik received foreign funds of more than Rs 3 crore as proceeds of crime generated through criminal activity and he further laundered it.
Regarding Shabir Ahmad Shah, the agency alleged that he, along with other accused persons, played a key role in building the separatist militant movement in Jammu and Kashmir and was one of its chief architects.
“Accused Shabir Shah was duly supported by the Pakistani agencies through the Hurriyat representatives such as Shafi Shair and Mehmood Sagar based in Pakistan,” it said.
The agency claimed that jailed Baramulla MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid –better known as Engineer Rashid — had been receiving funds from abroad and had interconnections with JKLF and its branches based abroad.
“Same is corroborated from the mail retrieved from the email account of accused Yasin Malik. Through this mail, it is evident that Khawaja Manzoor Ahmed Chisti, through Yasin Malik, had delivered funds to Abdul Rashid Sheikh,” the agency claimed, further alleging that the MP has admitted that he has received funds from Watali on various occasions in the statement recorded under PMLA on October 1, 2022.
