Srinagar: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday cast doubts over the timing of questioning Member of Parliament and NC leader Farooq Abdullah by Enforcement Directorate in Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Academy scam.
Mufti in a tweet said that the timing of the questioning ‘raises suspicions and questions’.
“JK cricket scam is an old case that’s been under investigation for quite sometime. ED questioning Farooq sahab at a time when J&K mainstream parties are collectively standing up to protect its unique identity raises suspicions & questions,” she tweeted.
Farooq is being questioned under PMLA in Chandigarh, reports said.
“Misusing central agencies to harass & intimidate those who dissent or don’t fall in line has become quite blasé & brazen,” she tweeted.
In 2016, former three time chief minister of the state, Farooq was charged by the CBI in a corruption case linked to the state cricket body. The CBI in February 2016 had filed a charge sheet against Farooq and three others for allegedly misappropriating over Rs. 43 crore from grants given by the BCCI to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association for promoting cricket in the state between 2002 to 2011.
The CBI had charged Farooq and three others—the then JKCA general secretary Md Saleem Khan and the then treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, as also J&K Bank executive Bashir Ahmad Misgar—for criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.