Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 14: Enforcement Directorate (ED), Srinagar attached several immovable properties of then Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir State Cooperative Bank, Mohammad Shafi Dar and then Secretary of River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society, Abdul Hamid Hajam.
The attached properties include residential houses having value amounting to Rs. 2.45 crore in a case related to the financial fraud committed with J&K State Co-operative Bank (JKSTCB). The ED sad that the total attachment in this case till date are Rs. 195.91 crore.
The statement said that Dar and Hajam, the case related to the financial fraud committed with J&K State Co-operative Bank (JKSTCB) by fraudulent sanctioning and disbursement of loan to the tune of Rs. 223 crore in 2019 to a fake cooperative society named River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society, Shivpora, Srinagar, by the then Chairman of JKSTCB and Others.
The ED said that it initiated investigation on the basis of FIR and consequent charge sheets filed by LEA, Srinagar invoking various Sections of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) and Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption Act (JK PC Act) Samvat 2006 (Corresponding to IPC and PCA) against five accused persons – Hilal Ahmad Mir (Chairman of River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society), Abdul Hamid Hajam (Secretary of River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society), Mohammad Mujeeb Ur Rehman Ghassi (the then Registrar of Cooperative Societies, J&K), Syed Ashiq Hussain (the then Dy. Registrar of Co-operative Societies, J&K) and Mohammad Shafi Dar (the then Chairman of JKSTCB).
The ED said the investigation revealed that Hilal Ahmad Mir, Abdul Hamid Hajam, Mohammad Mujeeb Ur Rehman Ghassi, Syed Ashiq Hussain and Mohammad Shafi Dar in connivance with one another, had managed to fraudulently receive sanction of loan of Rs. 250 crore from JKSTCB in the name of a fake society, River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society and siphoned off the same as payments made towards purchase of land parcels, without any collateral security and ignoring all the regulatory procedures in a criminal conspiracy relating to offence of money laundering under PMLA.
The statement said that this is the second provisional attachment in this case. “Earlier, immovable properties valued at Rs. 193.46 crore were also provisionally attached in December 2023. Also, in January this year, Prosecution under PMLA has been launched against six persons including the accused before PMLA Court, Srinagar, which has taken cognizance of the same. Further investigation in the matter is ongoing,” it added.
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