Omar terms ED attachment order of father's properties as 'baseless'

Omar Abdullah on Saturday termed the provisional attachment order of properties belonging to his father by the Enforcement Directorate as "baseless" and wondered how an ancestral property could be seen as proceeds of "crime". Omar expressed wonder that the properties attached are largely ancestral dating from the 1970s with the most recent one built before 2003.

New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday termed the provisional attachment order of properties belonging to his father by the Enforcement Directorate as "baseless" 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 his father, Farooq Abdullah, "is in touch with his lawyers and will fight all these baseless charges in the one place that matters - a court of law".

He said everyone is presumed to be innocent and is entitled to a fair trial "unlike in the court of the media or the court of BJP managed social media".

Omar expressed wonder that 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," he said.

READ: ED attaches Rs 11.86 cr assets of Farooq Abdullah, others in JKCA money laundering case

He said that his father came to know about the attachment of his properties in the ongoing investigation in to the JKCA matter through media.

"Not surprisingly the media was tipped off regarding the seizure before he had received any official notice or documentation," he said.

PTI