The Enforcement Directorate has summoned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to New Delhi for questioning on March 15 in a matter of alleged money laundering related to the chief minister’s secret fund.
According to sources, the ED is probing the utilisation of the CM’s secret fund worth over Rs 50 crore, a part of which is suspected to have landed in the coffers of the men and women who in no way were supposed to be its handlers or recipients. If these sources are to be believed, the ED sleuths have got a trail of the money transfer of Rs 40 lakh to one of the former CM’s relatives based in the United States of America. The investigators, according to the sources, suspect that the end-recipient was, among others, close to a top anti-India activist in the US.
CM's secret fund, believed to be of an order of Rs 25 crore a year, is not liable to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. However, the security and the intelligence agencies are known to be keeping an eye on it's transactions so as to ensure that the same is not misused for unauthorised or illegal activity.
The ED is understood to be probing some sales and purchases of land in Bijbehara and Harwan area of Srinagar. At least three prominent businesspersons and contractors, believed to be close to the former ruling family, have also been called and questioned about certain transactions.
According to these sources, the ED has also questioned some government officials who have worked at the former CM’s office and residence. They include a telephone operator of the Department of Hospitality & Protocol, a retired officer of the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) and a senior IAS officer who is still in service.
The ED sleuths are also understood to be probing the source of the money spent on the former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s burial ground inside a public park in Bijbehara.
The summons have been issued two months after Mehbooba, in a letter to the Director Enforcement, alleged that the Government of India had let loose the ED and other Central agencies out of political vendetta so as to settle scores with her and her party colleagues.
Mehbooba in December 2020 had taken objection to the PDP youth president Waheed-ur-Rehman’s arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a matter of alleged terror funding, detention of some senior party colleagues and a raid on the offices and residence of her confidante, Anjum Fazili, a former nominated MLA in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Shortly after receiving the ED summons, Mehbooba tweeted: “GOIs tactics to intimidate & browbeat political opponents to make them toe their line has become tediously predictable. They don’t want us to raise questions about its punitive actions & policies. Such short sighted scheming won’t work”.
With the National Conference (NC) President and the former CM, Farooq Abdullah, already facing the ED’s questioning in the Rs 44 crore Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) fund scam, Mehbooba is the second former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir to be questioned by the Central agency in a case of alleged money laundering.
Both the former Chief Ministers are, however, continuing under the elite SSG security cover. While Farooq lives at his private house on Gupkar Road, Mehbooba has been staying at her officially-allotted Fair View house on the same street in a high security zone.
Sources believed to be privy to the investigation insist that Mehbooba has not been called for questioning in the terror-funding case against the dismissed Dy SP Davinder Singh and the detained PDP youth leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra investigated by the NIA.
