‘No justification for seizures,’ says Omar Abdullah on ED action on Farooq Abdullah

After the Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth Rs 11.86 crores of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Saturday, his son, National Conference leader and also former CM Omar Abdullah said there can be no justification for the action.

“They fail the very basic test of having been acquired as the proceeds of the ‘crime’ being investigated,” he tweeted.

The ED on Saturday said it has attached Farooq Abdullah’s properties totaling to Rs 12 crores in a case of funds laundering of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association. The attached properties include three residential houses, one at Gupkar road, Srinagar; one at Tehsil Katipora, Tanmarg, and one at Bhatindi, Sunjwan(Jammu); commercial buildings at posh Residency Road area of Srinagar. Lands at four different places in J&K have also been attached.

Omer Abdullah said these properties are largely ancestral, dating from the 1970s. The most recent one among these were built before 2003.

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

He also alleged that the news was published before Farooq Abdullah was given any official notice. “My father has seen the media reports regarding attachment of his properties in the ongoing investigation in to the JKCA matter. Not surprisingly the media was tipped off regarding the seizure before he had received any official notice or documentation,” he wrote.

Farooq Abdullah served as the chief minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state for several years since 1982. His last stint as the CM was between 1996 and 2002.

He was the president of JKCA from 2006 to 2012. The ED has claimed to have found that Farooq Abdullah “misused his position and clout by illegal appointments of office bearer to whom he gave financial powers for the purpose of laundering JKCA funds”.

“Despite existing regular bank account of JKCA, six new bank account were opened for parking of JKCA funds and siphoning of the same. One dormant bank account in the name of Kashmir Wing of JKCA was also made operational for the same purposed,” the ED said.