Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 2: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has come across very vital documents, which showed the arrested Kashmir separatist leaders owned huge assets, running into several crores, which included Malls, bungalows, orchards, land at prime locations etc and was questioning them about the source of money used to purchase them as they didn’t have any major business to purchase them other than the funds sent from Pakistan for terror funding and fuelling unrest.
Sources told the Excelsior that raids conducted at the residences and other concerns of seven separatist leaders, who were arrested by the NIA on July 24 from Srinagar and New Delhi and were on 10-day police remand, have resulted into seizure of very significant documents by the NIA, which showed that the Kashmiri separatist leaders had made huge wealth during the past two and a half decades i.e. the period of Pakistan-sponsored militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Malls, palatial bungalows, large orchards, land at prime locations across Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi were just few properties to mention, which have been detected on the names of Kashmiri separatist leaders and their kin. Some of the properties also included `benami’, sources pointed out.
Sources said a detailed list of the property owned by the Kashmiri separatist leaders has been prepared by the NIA during their questioning as well as the documents seized from their houses, offices and other places at the time of raids.
“The separatists are now being quizzed to ascertain how they managed to purchase properties running into crores without having any major business or important sources of income,” sources said, adding they believed that part of funds that poured in from Pakistan and other channels for funding terrorism and unrest in the Valley might have been used by the separatists to own assets.
Sources said the NIA has prepared list of nearly 80 movable and immovable assets in the possession of separatists, both on their own or kin’s names as well as benami, which included malls, shopping complex, flats in Delhi, huge land, orchards, schools, bungalows, limestone and gypsum quarries, hotels and stakes in housing colonies.
Asserting that separatists would have to disclose source of money used to make the assets, sources said if they were unable to disclose the legal source or disown the properties, they will be seized.
Sources pointed out that security guards of some of the separatists had acted as facilitators in purchasing and guarding the assets purchase by them and they too could be questioned as they might be having more details of both movable and immovable properties in the possession of separatist leaders.
The NIA has already summoned two sons of hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani including Nayeem and Naseem. While Nayeem has been admitted in the hospital in Srinagar after receiving the summons, Naseem was expected to appear before the NIA anytime.
Sources said the NIA wants to question kin of a separatist regarding the properties that include an ancestral bungalow and an orchard in Sopore’s Dooru, an office-cum-residence complex in Rehmatabad Colony owned by Milli Trust, a school run by the trust, land measuring around 100 kanals in Pattan, a two-storey house and a bungalow in Bagh-e-Mehtab and Bemina in Srinagar, flats in Delhi’s Khirki Extension and Vasant Kunj, an eight-room house in Sanat Nagar and limestone and gypsum quarries in Uri and Baramulla, spread over around four and eight hectares of land, respectively.
Sources said the power of attorney for the quarry lies on the name of a local, who has also been identified and could be called for questioning shortly.
Another separatist leader will be questioned regarding the two houses in Budgam, a hotel in Pahalgam and three residential properties in Kadipora, Srinagar and Narwal. Yet another separatist could face questioning about the ownership of a Mall in Lal Chowk and a shop in Abi Guzar, Srinagar.
The NIA wants to quiz one more separatist about the ownership of 20 shops in Lal Bazaar, a shopping complex and a bank building in Rajouri Kadal.
In case of an already arrested separatist, the NIA has prepared a list of 19 properties and companies whose real ownership remains to be ascertained.
The list includes a dairy farm in Pattan, partnership in a trade company which has an office in Jawahar Nagar area of Srinagar, franchise of a college being run in Srinagar, directorship of Khan’s wife in a cooperative firm, a hospitality firm and tracts of land and buildings in Srinagar, Baramulla and Baghat Barzulla in district Budgam.
The NIA had on July 24 arrested seven separatist leaders – Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah ‘Funtoosh’, Ayaz Akbar Khanday, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah (all from Geelani’s faction of Hurriyat), Shahid-ul-Islam (of the faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq), Nayeem Khan of the Jammu Kashmir National Front and Farooq Ahmed Dar aka Bitta Karatay of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.
On July 25, a Delhi court granted the NIA their custody for 10 days, turning down its request for 18-day custody.
PTI adds from New Delhi: a Delhi court today granted one more day to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in connection with a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror financing.
While passing the order, Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Pandit did not agree with the agency’s plea seeking seven more days’ custody of Shah on the ground that it needed to unearth the larger conspiracy.
The ED’s plea was opposed by Shah’s counsel M S Khan.
The 64-year-old separatist leader, who was arrested on July 25, was produced in the court after expiry of his seven-day ED custody.
The agency had earlier issued summonses to Shah in connection with the August 2005 case in which the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer.
According to the prosecution, Wani had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.
Wani was arrested with a large cache of ammunition and Rs 63 lakh, allegedly received through ‘hawala’ channels from the Middle East, on August 26, 2005, it had said.
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