Money Laundering Case: `Unfazed’ Mehbooba Says Not Afraid Of ED’s Notices, Will Continue To Speak For People

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For J-K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Ishfaq-ul-Hassan | India Tomorrow

SRINAGAR—A day after Delhi High Court refused to stay Enforcement Directorate’s summons, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said she will not be bogged down by such notices and continue to speak for her people.

“The issue is sub judice. But let me tell you that I am not afraid of anyone or anything. I will always speak for my people,” Mehbooba said.

Delhi High Court on Friday refused to stay the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate Mehbooba. The court, however, issued a notice to the ED and Centre.

A division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh asked Mehbooba’s counsel and government advocates to file their legal notes in the case. The case has been adjourned till April 16. Mehbooba has been asked by the ED to appear before it on March 22.

On March 10, Mehbooba had got temporary relief after Delhi High Court stayed the summons of the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.

Earlier, the former chief minister had challenged the validity of the summons and asked the court to quash the summons.

In her petition, Mehbooba said she had not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness.

“The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge,” the petition said.

She alleged that since her release from preventive detention following the abrogation of Article 370, “there have been a series of hostile acts by the state, against her, acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED…”

A political storm had hit Jammu and Kashmir after Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned former chief minister in a money laundering case.

“GOI’s tactics to intimidate & browbeat political opponents to make them toe their line has become tediously predictable. They don’t want us to raise questions about its punitive actions & policies. Such short-sighted scheming won’t work,” Mehbooba had tweeted soon after the notices.

Earlier in December 2020, Mehbooba had written a letter to the Director of the ED, claiming that various persons from Kashmir related to her were summoned by the agency.

“The only common thread connecting these persons appears to be that they are all acquainted with me, my family, or my politics in one way or another. The questioning of these persons is also focused on me, my personal, political, and financial affairs, my late father’s grave and memorial, my sister’s finances, home constructions, my brother’s finances, and personal affairs, etc,” she had said in the letter.

Mehbooba was among three former chief ministers including Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah, who were detained under Public Safety Act after the centre abrogated Article 370 on August 5, 2019. 

She was released in October 2020. However, she has vowed to fight for the restoration of the special status. She is one of the founding members of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a five-party conglomerate formed to fight for the restoration of Article 370.

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