The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) charge sheets in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) scam case involving former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and several others.
This development marks a significant turn in the long-running case.
The JKCA scam, which emerged in 2012, centers around allegations of financial mismanagement and embezzlement of funds meant for cricket development in Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq Abdullah, who was the president of the JKCA at the time, faced accusations of diverting substantial sums for personal use and failing to account for the funds properly.
Quashing the charge sheets means that the High Court has invalidated the legal documents that detailed the charges and evidence against the accused, effectively removing them from the court record.
This decision halts further legal proceedings based on these charge sheets.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar’s single bench ruling stated that no predicate offence was established against the individuals, leading to the quashing of both the charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet filed by the ED.
The charge sheet had implicated National Conference leader Abdullah, Ahsan Ahmad Mirza (former JKCA treasurer), Mir Manzoor Gazanffer (another ex-treasurer), among others.
The ED had previously reported that JKCA received Rs 94.06 crore from the BCCI in three separate bank accounts from the financial years 2005-2006 to 2011-2012 (up to December 2011).
The agency had, in its chargesheet, alleged that these funds were moved through various bank accounts, which were later used for money laundering.