Farooq Abdullah appears before ED, NC terms it part of coercive plot

ED summons National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah, a day after he was questioned by the same agency for a marathon six hours. The party lambasted the government for its agenda of cornering any voices of dissent.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): National Conference president Farooq Abdullah appeared before the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday, second time this week, for questioning in connection with a money-laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore scam in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

The 83-year-old former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir was questioned for over six hours on October 19 in the case.

After the questioning on Monday, Abdullah had said he was not worried and would cooperate in the probe.

The last round of questioning took place four days after Jammu and Kashmir's mainstream political parties, including the NC and the PDP, met at Abdullah's residence and formed the People's Alliance for 'Gupkar Declaration'.

ED officials said Abdullah's statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as in the past. He was questioned for the first time in July last year in Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed anguish over the second summon from the Enforcement Directorate to his father and said that This on a day when my father turns 84!"

• This on a day when my father turns 84! https://t.co/Q9h3VPccIn

  — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 21, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  This on a day when my father turns 84! https://t.co/Q9h3VPccIn

  — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 21, 2020

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  This on a day when my father turns 84! https://t.co/Q9h3VPccIn

  — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 21, 2020

Meanwhile, National conference also expressed anger over today’s ED summon to Abdullah and lambasted the government for its agenda of cornering any voices of dissent.

Terming the ED summonses, the latest being today, calculated coercive measures, the party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that its aimed at curtailing Dr Farooq's efforts to weave unity among mainstream political parties in J&K.

Calling the repeated ED summons pressure tactics, he said, “What is it that ED forgot to ask during the six hours it interrogated an 83 yr old Member of Parliament?”

The government and its agencies, the spokesperson said, has no consideration for a law-abiding citizen who is severely immunocompromised and diabetic.

“Dr Abdullah being treated like this is a proof that the BJP is not even interested in a face-saving act and is completely comfortable with being seen as a bully by the nation,” he said.

He further said that “the only way to get a clean chit these days is to surrender one's ideology and join the BJP. We’ve seen this story play out from Assam to Karnataka, from West Bengal to Andhra Pradesh but Dr Abdullah is not going to surrender to the BJP, come what may.”

The agency's case is based on an FIR filed by the CBI, which booked former JKCA office-bearers, including general secretary Mohammed Saleem Khan and former treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza.

The CBI had also filed a charge sheet in 2018 against Abdullah, Khan, Mirza as well as former JKCA treasurer Mir Manzoor Gazanffer Ali and former accountants Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh for the "misappropriation of JKCA funds amounting to Rs 43.69 crore" from grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to promote the sport in the erstwhile state between 2002 and 2011.

With inputs from PTI