The Enforcement Directorate has attached a property belonging to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah’s family in connection with a terror funding case. The property was attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is situated in Srinagar’s Effandi Bagh and is in the name of Shah’s wife and daughters.
ED sources said that the separatist leader admitted that he did not have any source of income and he failed to explain any legitimate source of money for his expenses. “He has been involved in carrying out illicit activities along with his accomplice Mohammed Aslam Wani, who is an activist of banned militant organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed. He was using Aslam Wani as a carrier for collecting ‘hawala’ money sent by his Pakistan-based sympathisers to deliver the same in Srinagar,” said the agency. The ED probe is based on a chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police. According to the agency, Mr. Shah admitted that he did not have any source of income and he failed to explain any legitimate source of money for his expenses.“Investigation also revealed that he was in touch with the global terrorist Hafiz Saeed, chief of banned outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa based in Pakistan. He had been receiving money for carrying out separatist activities in J&K and has acquired various properties through a maze of dubious transactions,” the agency alleged.
The attached property was shown to have been gifted to his wife and daughters by his sisters-in-law in 2005, which was purchased in their name by his father-in-law in 1999. “However, in spite of repeated opportunities given to his father-in-law and sisters-in-law, they have failed to justify the sources of fund to acquire the said property. Investigation has also revealed thatShah is the de-facto owner of the said property purchased vide unexplained source of fund by his father-in-law,” the ED said.
–India Legal Bureau
You might also be interested in: