Former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah in Rs44-cr Cricket Association scam
17 Jul 2018
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed charges against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and three others for alleged misappropriation of J&K Cricket Association (JKCA) funds by opening bogus bank accounts.
The case pertains to an alleged embezzlement of over Rs113 crore of funds at the cricket association when Farooq Abdullah was the president of JKCA between 2001 and 2011. The alleged irregularities in the state cricket body surfaced in 2012.
Abdullah, Saleem Khan, the then general secretary, Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, the then treasurer, and Bashir Ahmad Misgar, an executive in the J&K Bank, have been charged under Ranbir Penal Code [ Ranbir Penal Code or RPC is a criminal code applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, where Indian Penal Code is not applicable] sections related to criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, PTI quoted officials as saying.
The BCCI gave Rs112 crore to the J&K cricket association between 2002 and 2011 for the development of cricket facilities in the state. Of this, Rs43.69 crore was siphoned off and misappropriated by the accused, the agency has alleged.
The alleged scam surfaced in 2012 and the CBI took over the case from the state police in 2015 on the orders of a division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
The HC had asked the CBI to investigate the case after the police failed to conclude its probe after three years. It pronounced the order on a PIL filed by two cricketers – Majid Yaqoob Dar and Nissar Ahmad Khan — into the alleged scam.
"I will not be addressing this issue separately except to say I have no doubt at the end of the legal process, my father will be found innocent and free of any allegations of wrong doing," vice president of the National Conference Omar Abdullah said in a tweet.
National Conference also released a statement where it said that an FIR was ordered in this particular matter by Farooq Abdullah himself and the leader is certain that "truth shall prevail".