JKCA case: HC quashes ED charge sheets against Farooq Abdullah, others

Shariq J Reyaz, representing Mirza and Gazanffer, had moved the high court saying that the ED had no jurisdiction over the case and the charge sheets filed against his clients should be quashed.

The court, after hearing arguments, had reserved the judgement on August 7. The ED was represented by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju through virtual mode.

Reyaz said the court accepted "our plea that no predicate offence was made out" and that the ED had no jurisdiction over the case.

Mirza was arrested by the ED in September, 2019 and a charge sheet was filed against him in November that year and the trial in that complaint is going on.

Abdullah has been questioned multiple times by the agency in the case.

The federal probe agency had attached assets belonging to Abdullah and others worth Rs 21.55 crore under three separate orders issued by it in the past.

The agency's case is based on a 2018 charge sheet filed by the CBI against the same accused.

The CBI charge sheet filed against Abdullah, Mirza, Gazanffer and former accountants Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh alleged "misappropriation of JKCA funds amounting to Rs 43.69 crore" from grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to promote the sport in the erstwhile state between 2002 and 2011.

The ED had earlier said its probe found that JKCA received Rs 94.06 crore from BCCI in three different bank accounts during financial years 2005-2006 to 2011-2012 (up to December 2011).

It had alleged that several other bank accounts were opened in the name of the JKCA into which the funds were transferred. The bank accounts along with the existing bank accounts were later used for laundering JKCA funds.