National Conference leader and MP Farooq Abdullah has been summoned for questioning today by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, becoming the latest opposition leader to be summoned by the central probe agency.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren faces summons in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam while his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, who has skipped three summons, faces probe by the agency in connection with Delhi liquor policy case. All three leaders are part of the INDIA bloc.
The summons have asked Mr Abdullah, 86, to depose at the ED office in Srinagar.
The MP from Srinagar Lok Sabha seat was charge-sheeted by the agency, which investigates financial crimes, in the case in 2022.
The case involves siphoning of funds belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, which were transferred to personal bank accounts of various people including the office bearers of cricket association. The agency started a money laundering investigation on the basis of a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against office bearers of the association.
The allegations against Mr Abdullah, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, is that he “misused” his position as the president of the association and made appointments in the sports body so that the BCCI-sponsored funds could be laundered.
Mr Abdullah was the JKCA president from 2001 to 2012.
The alleged scam, which is being investigated both by the CBI and the ED, apparently took place between 2004 and 2009.