Three individuals, including a prominent Hurriyat leader, have been apprehended by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case. The case involves the alleged sale of MBBS seats in Pakistan and funding of terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The arrested individuals, identified as Mohammad Akbar Bhat, Fatima Shah, and Sabzzar Ahmad Sheikh, had been previously arrested over five years ago by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) in a separate terror funding case.
According to an ED spokesperson, the trio was taken into custody on Tuesday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). They are accused of involvement in terror financing and collusion with Pakistani handlers Manzoor Ahmad Shah and Altaf Ahmad Bhat. These handlers allegedly facilitated admissions in MBBS and other courses in Pakistani colleges for students from Jammu and Kashmir.Following their arrest, the accused have been remanded to the custody of the ED until February 20 by the court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBI-Cases) in Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar.
In May 2022, the special NIA court in Srinagar had charged Mohammad Akbar Bhat, the chairman of the Hurriyat conference ‘Salvation Movement’, and seven others for selling MBBS seats in Pakistan to finance terrorist activities.The SIA had previously registered a case on July 27, 2020, against individuals involved in collaborating with educational consultancies to secure admissions for residents of Jammu and Kashmir in MBBS and other professional courses in Pakistani institutions.
The ED initiated its investigation into money laundering based on an FIR registered by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which alleged offenses under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Bhat, Shah, Sheikh, Qazi Yasir, Syed Khalid Geelani (also known as ‘Khalid Andrabi’), and others linked to terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The agency revealed that the arrested individuals had received funds in their personal accounts and in the bank accounts of the “Al-Jabar Trust,” which was purportedly a charitable trust but was allegedly misused to funnel money received from students into terrorist activities in India. These activities included funding stone-pelters and individuals or terrorists based in Jammu and Kashmir as per instructions from Pakistani handlers.
Previously, the ED had provisionally attached properties worth Rs 5 crore under the PMLA, including various bank accounts and immovable properties.Please note that this report is auto-generated from the PTI news service, and Americalisten bears no responsibility for its content.
