ED formally arrests Hurriyat leader Mohammad Akbar Bhat, two others in money-laundering case

PTI

Srinagar, February 14

The Enforcement Directorate has formally arrested three people, including a Hurriyat leader, in a money laundering case for their alleged involvement in selling MBBS seats in Pakistan and funding terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir, an official said on Wednesday.

Hurriyat leader Mohammad Akbar Bhat and Fatima Shah of Srinagar and Sabzzar Ahmad Sheikh of Anantnag are already in jail after their arrest more than five years ago by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) in a terror funding case.

Bhat, Shah and Sheikh were arrested on Tuesday under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provisions for their involvement in terror financing and being hand in glove with Pakistani handlers Manzoor Ahmad Shah and Altaf Ahmad Bhat, who arranged admissions in MBBS and other courses in colleges in Pakistan for students from Jammu and Kashmir, a spokesperson of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said.

The official said the accused have been remanded in the ED custody till February 20 by the court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBI-Cases), Kashmir, Srinagar.

In May 2022, the special NIA court in Srinagar had framed charges against Bhat, who is the chairman of the Hurriyat conference ‘Salvation Movement’, and seven others for selling Pakistani MBBS seats to fund terror activities.

The SIA had on July 27, 2020, registered the case against the “unscrupulous persons” who were hand in glove with some educational consultancies for arranging admission of residents of Jammu and Kashmir in MBBS and other professional courses in colleges, institutions and universities in Pakistan.

“The ED had initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by the J-K Police for offences under various sections of the Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Bhat, Shah, Sheikh, Qazi Yasir, Syed Khalid Geelani alias ‘Khalid Andrabi’ and others involved in terrorist activity in Jammu and Kashmir,” the spokesperson said.

The ED said the arrested persons had received money in their personal accounts and in the bank accounts of the “Al-Jabar Trust”.

The “Al-Jabar Trust”, the agency said was a charitable trust but it was being used for receiving funds from students, which were further being ploughed into terrorist activities in India in various ways such as giving money to stone pelters, providing money to persons or terrorists based in J-K, according to the instructions of the Pakistani handlers.

Earlier, the ED had provisionally attached properties worth Rs 5 crore under the provisions of the PMLA in the form of various bank accounts and immovable properties.

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