Srinagar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached several immovable properties worth Rs 2.45 crore in connection with an alleged Rs 233 crore money laundering scam, officials said on Thursday.
ED said the immovable properties in the form of residential houses having a value amounting to Rs. 2.45 Crore, related to former J&K State Co-operative Bank Chairman Mohammad Shafi Dar and Abdul Hamid Hajam, Secretary of River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, a “fictitious firm”, were attached.
The case related to the financial fraud committed with J&K State Co-operative Bank (JKSTCB) by fraudulent sanctioning and disbursement of a loan to the tune of Rs. 223 Crore in 2019 to a fictitious cooperative society named River Jehlum Co-operative House Building Society, Shivpora. Srinagar, by the then Chairman of JKSTCB & Others.
Officials said the ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR and consequent charge sheets filed by the law enforcement agency of Srinagar against five accused – Dar, Hajam, Hilal Ahmed Mir, the Chairman of the River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, Mohammad Mujeeb Ur Rehman Ghassi (the then registrar of Cooperative Societies, J&K) and Syed Ashiq Hussain (the then deputy registrar of Cooperative Societies, J&K).
The spokesman said ED initiated an investigation based on FIR and consequent chargesheets filed by the law enforcement agency, Srinagar invoking various sections of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) & Jammu & Kashmir Prevention of Corruption Act (JK PC Act) Samvat 2006 (Corresponding to IPC and PCA) against the five accused persons.
ED investigation revealed that five accused in connivance with one another had managed to fraudulently receive the sanction of the loan of Rs.250 Crore from JKSTCB in the name of a “fake society”, River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society and siphoned off the same as payments made towards the purchase of land parcels, without any collateral security and ignoring all the regulatory procedures in a criminal conspiracy relating to offence of money laundering under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
This is the second provisional attachment in this case.
Earlier, immovable properties valued at Rs. 193.46 Crore were also provisionally attached in December 2023. Also, in January this year, Prosecution under PMLA has been launched against six persons including the aforesaid accused before PMLA Court, Srinagar, which has taken cognizance of the same.
Further investigation in the matter is ongoing, ED said.
