A Srinagar court recently directed the framing of charges against National Conference president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and others named in an alleged Rs 112-crore Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association financial irregularities case.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Tabasum on February 2 directed that the case be listed for formal framing of charges on March 12. This means that those named will now have to face trial.
The bench said that on a preliminary reading, the essential ingredients of the offences of criminal conspiracy and breach of trust were made out against those named in the case.
The court’s order added that once charges are framed, the statements of two accused, who have turned approvers, will be recorded as evidence.
Those named, including Abdullah, will face charges pertaining to criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and criminal breach of trust by public servants.
However, the court rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s request to add certain offences to the case. The judge held that the Enforcement Directorate cannot intervene in a case that is being investigated, filed and prosecuted by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“Therefore, the applicant has no locus standi as per the law to seek the addition of charge in the present case,” the order said while dismissing the Enforcement Directorate’s request.
It also pointed out that the agency is mainly allowed to probe the offence of money laundering as defined in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“The ED cannot assume from the material gathered by it that a predicate offence stands committed,” the order said. “The predicate offence has to be necessarily investigated and tried by the authorities empowered by law.”
The case
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the grant of Rs 112 crore by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association.
Abdullah was the president of the Jammu and Kashmir cricket body between 2001 and 2011.
The alleged scam came to light in March 2012 when the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association Treasurer Manzoor Wazir filed a complaint against its general secretary at the time, Mohammad Saleem Khan, and former treasurer Ahsan Mirza.
In the same year, the High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the matter, after which it filed a chargesheet against six persons, including Abdullah, in 2018.
In 2019, the Enforcement Directorate filed a fresh case. The agency alleged that more than Rs 50 crore were siphoned off between 2002 and 2011 from the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association when Abdullah was its president.
In 2020, the Enforcement Directorate filed a chargesheet in the case before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Srinagar.
However, in August 2024, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh quashed the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet.
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