Patiala House Court in Delhi frame charges against Shabir Shah in decade old money laundering, terror financing case

NewsBharati    15-Nov-2017
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New Delhi, November 15: A court in Delhi on Wednesday framed charges against Kashmiri separatist leader and the Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah and alleged hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani in a decade old money laundering case and 2005 case of terror financing.

 

Notably, Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma of Delhi's Patiala House Court has framed the charges against separatist Shabir Shah and hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani. However, both the accused pleaded of not being guilty and claimed trial in the court but went in vain.

The Enforcement Directorate on 23rd September of this year had said in a charge sheet that Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah had links with Pakistani terror outfits that were funding attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. ED also claimed that Shabir Shah admitted of having links with Hafiz Saeed and was in touch regularly.

Shabir, who was arrested in July this year and ED filed a complaint before the Delhi court also named hawala dealer Mohammed Aslam Wani, who is in judicial custody along with Shah. Shabir’s close aide and hawala dealer Aslam Wani was arrested in August this year has already disclosed receiving funds from a Pakistani hawala operator on Shah’s behalf in Delhi.

The Enforcement Directorate filed the charge sheet under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has furnished Shah's statements where he has revealed to the probe agency that he has no source of income of his own and that he does not file any Income Tax Return. Therefore, the Delhi court also took cognizance of the over 700-page charge sheet and directed the production of the accused before it on 27th of this month.

However, call records of Shah’s mobile number revealed that he had contacts in Pakistan, Dubai and England, the agency said, adding that these need further investigation. The case came into limelight in 2005 when the Delhi Police arrested Wani, who had claimed of giving Rs 2.25 crore to Shah illegally. After this, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against both. The agency had issued several summons to Shah, but he never appeared before them. Interestingly, in 2010, a Delhi court had cleared Wani of terror funding charges but had convicted him under the Arms Act.

The ED had recorded the statement of Wani where he allegedly said that he came to Delhi from Srinagar at the directions of Shah in April 2003. The ED alleged that Wani was asked by Shah to work for him in collecting hawala money from Delhi and deliver to him at Srinagar.