The CBI on Monday filed a chargesheet against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and three others in a special court in Srinagar in connection with alleged irregularities and misappropriation of funds in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association.
After the fall of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP government, this is the biggest development that has taken place in the state. The National Conference has not reacted to the chargesheet so far.
The agency has levelled charges of criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust under the Ranbir Penal Code against Abdullah, the then president of JKCA, Md Saleem Khan - the then general secretary, Ahsan Ahmad Mirza - the then treasuer and Bashir Ahmad Misgar, an executive in the J&K Bank.
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The BCCI gave Rs 112 crore to the JKCA between 2002 and 2011 for the development of cricket facilities in the state. Of this, Rs 43.69 crore was siphoned off and misappropriated by the accused, the agency has alleged.
Abdullah has been arrayed as accused number four in -the charge-sheet that is spread over 8,000 pages.
In September 2015, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court transferred the case to the CBI for probe. The court had said the president of JKCA is a tall political personality having served as the chief minister of the state and had remained as a Union minister in previous regimes. His complicity, the court had said, is alleged in granting approval to two contradictory resolutions pertaining to the operation of bogus accounts of the JKCA to keep accused Ahsan Mirza in control of financial matters despite his ceasing to be a treasurer after the election of 2011.
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“Despite a huge scam unveiled by the probe committee in its interim report and not taking effective steps in recovering the swindled money coupled with the fact that one of the beneficiaries namely Aslam Goni, indicted by the interim report has swindled amount exceeding rupees Rs 40 crore together with Ahsan Mirza and Saleem Khan, has served the state as advocate general in the former regime, rendered it imperative that investigation is transferred to CBI,” the division bench of Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice BL Bhat said.
The scam surfaced in the JKCA 2012 when the police registered an FIR against former treasurer of the JKCA Ahsan Mirza and former general secretary Saleem Khan, charging them of criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
The JKCA is getting subsidies from the BCCI annually. The accounts were opened in the name of the JKCA in Jammu and Kashmir Bank and the BCCI funds were diverted to these “bogus” accounts and subsequently siphoned off.
