ED summons Abdullah for 2nd time
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who turned 84 on Wednesday, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for five hours in connection with a multi-crore scam in the JK Cricket Association during 2002-11.
The National Conference president drove off after his questioning, for the second time in three days, at the ED office in Rajbagh here without talking to reporters waiting outside, unlike on Monday when he had asserted that he was prepared to answer all questions and was not worried about the case. He was questioned for over six hours on Monday. Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) criticised the government over his questioning, and said it was “yet another attempt to browbeat” the opposition. ED officials said on condition of anonymity that Abdullah had been called again on Wednesday to obtain some clarifications. He was questioned for the first time in July last year in Chandigarh after the agency had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2018.
The officials said Abdullah’s statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he was asked about the procedures followed and decisions taken when he was the president of the cricket body, the time when the alleged scam is said to have taken place. The agency is expected to file a fresh charge sheet in the case soon, they said.
As Abdullah went for his second round of questioning, his son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed his displeasure and tweeted the party statement on his father’s summons with the comment: “This on a day when my father turns 84!” NC spokesman Imran Nabi Dar issued a statement expressing anger and said these tactics are only aimed at “browbeating” opposition leaders who raise their voice against the BJP’s “divisive politics”. The party criticised the government for what it called an “agenda of cornering any voices of dissent”. “How many times will BJP use CBI, ED, anti-corruption bureau and its other agencies to browbeat opposition? The plot has become predictable. Anyone who speaks against the government or musters courage against its divisive politics will be hounded and summoned,” it said. Terming these ED summons “calculated coercive measures”, Dar said that it is aimed at curtailing Farooq Abdullah’s efforts to weave unity among mainstream political parties in JK. Calling the repeated ED summons as 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 lawabiding citizen who is severely immuno compromised and diabetic.