courtesy  HT DEC 20

Farooq’s properties worth over ₹11 crore attached in JKCA case

Farooq Abdullah
Mir Ehsan and Neeraj Chauhan

letters@hindustantimes.com

Srinagar/New Delhi : The Enforcement Directorate (ED)  on Saturday attached properties of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah valued around ₹11.86 crore in connection with its money laundering probe linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), officials said on Saturday.

The attached properties include three residential houses -- at Gupkar Road, Srinagar; Tehsil Katipora, Tanmarg, and one at Bhatindi, Village Sunjwan (Jammu) as well as commercial buildings in the Residency Road area of Srinagar. Besides, land at four different places in J&K has also been attached, according to a statement issued by the ED.

Reacting to the development, Farooq Abdullah’s son and NC vice president Omar Abdullah said in a tweet, “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.”

“Dr Abdullah is in touch with his lawyers & will fight all these baseless charges in the one place that matters -- a court of law,” Omar said in another tweet.

Senior CPI(M) leader and former legislator M Y Tarigami said attaching the property of Abdullah is part of “vindictive politics” practised by the central government to “kill dissent