Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti was on Friday summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
According to the ED notice, Ms. Mufti is directed “to appear before the ED on March 15 at 11.30 a.m.”
Ms. Mufti has been called by the ED in a case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Earlier, Ms. Mufti’s two close aides, Nayeem Akhtar and Sartaj Madni, were taken into preventive custody in December last year. Last year, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was grilled by the ED in a cricket scam case.
Reacting to the development, Ms. Mufti, in a tweet, said, “The Government of India’s tactics to intimidate and browbeat political opponents to make them toe their line has become tediously (sic) predictable. They don’t want us to raise questions about its punitive actions and policies. Such short sighted scheming won’t work.”
NC leader gets bail
Meanwhile, National Conference leader Hilal Akbar Lone, who is the son of Member of Parliament Muhammad Akbar Lone, was granted bail in a hate speech case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
He was booked for his speech made during District Development Council polls on consumption of beef and madrasa education in December last year.
“Such spoken words wouldn’t prima facie lead to commission of offence of unlawful activity. There is not any allegation that Mr. Lone has called for the secession of the territory of the state (sic) from the Union of India, nor were his words intending to cause disaffection against the country,” observed Sanjay Parihar, Special Judge, Baramulla.
“ ... The allegations levelled in the police report and what is recorded in the case diary, there is not any whisper that the petitioner had exhorted the assembly of people whom he was addressing on the day when the video was shot to cause any kind of violence so as to throw out the government of the present day. It is also not the case that the petitioner was in any way inciting people to commit any kind of violence,” the court held, while granting him bail.
Commenting on the speech of Mr. Lone, the court observed that what was alleged therein is regarding the policies of the government of the day, which according to the petitioner is ‘branding Muslims as terrorists, whereas its own people are terrorising others and preventing them from discharging their religious beliefs’. “Such spoken words wouldn’t prima facie lead to the commission of offences of unlawful activity of the type as provided in Section 2(o) of the Act,” it said.
Earlier this month, an FIR under Sections 153-A, 188, 505 of the Indian Penal Code, Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act and Section 13 of the UAPA was registered against Mr. Lone, whose father represents the Baramulla constituency in Parliament.
