ED again questions Farooq for 5 hours

NC passes resolution against ‘vindictive’ action

Srinagar: National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah was again questioned by the Enforcement Department (ED) on Wednesday, the second time within the last three days, in connection with the Rs 43 crore scam pertaining to JK Cricket Association.
Abdullah, who turned 84 years on Wednesday, faced questioning from ED sleuths for five hours in Srinagar.
Earlier, ED had questioned Abdullah on Monday in connection with the case.
The National Conference president drove off after his questioning 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.
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!”
Reacting over the fresh summons, National Conference on Wednesday expressed dismay over the unnecessary hounding of the octogenarian leader while terming the consecutive summons to him as a part of “coercive plot”.
The party said that it was angered over the Enforcement Department’s fresh summon to party Abdullah, a day after being questioned by the same agency for six hours.
While terming the summons from the Enforcement Department as coercive measures for cornering voices of dissent, the party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that such summons are aimed at curtailing Abdullah efforts to unite mainstream political parties of Jammu and Kashmir.
“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.
Dar accused the BJP of using CBI, ED, Anti Corruption Bureau and other agencies to browbeat the opposition parties of Jammu and Kashmir, saying “the plot has become predictable. Anyone who speaks against the government or musters courage against its divisive politics will be hounded and summoned’’.
He added that in order to remain safe everyone needs to surrender one’s ideology and join the BJP. He said that Abdullah was not going to surrender to the BJP whatever comes their way.
“What is it that ED forgot to ask during the six hours it interrogated an 83-yr-old Member of Parliament again?”, Imran questioned.
Meanwhile, National Conference on Wednesday passed a resolution to condemn “vindictive and coercive” action against its party president while extending full support towards their leader to fight for the rights of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“We resolve that we strongly condemn the vindictive/coercive action against party president Dr Farooq Abdullah. We stand fully with our leader and his unity mission in J&K. Our resolve to fight for the rights of people of J&K is undeterred by such action,” reads the resolution.
The resolution was passed during the meeting, presided over by National Conference General Secretary, Ali Muhammad Sagar at the party headquarters Nawa-e-Subha in Srinagar.
Besides Sagar, Party’s Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani, Senior Leaders Muhammad Shafi Uri, Mian Altaf Ahmed, Mubarak Gul, Members of Parliament Muhammad Akbar Lone, Hasnain Masoodi; Central Secretary Irfan Shah, Mir Saifullah, Vice Provincial President Mohammad Syed Akhoon, Provincial Secretary Showkat Mir, Central Zone President Ali Muhammad Dar, South Zone President Dr. Bahir Veeri, YNC Provincial President Salman Ali Sagar, Syed Tauqeer, Peer Muhammad Hussain were present in the meeting.
—With PTI inputs