ED issues show cause notice against Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali under FEMA in terror funding case

New Delhi, April 28: Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, who is a close aide of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been slapped with a show cause notice under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Notably, Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali was involved in terror funding case and anti-India operations.

 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued show cause notice to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali under FEMA as he was involved in terror funding case and anti-India operations. After getting a specific input from Intelligence Bureau, the ED has initiated the investigation under FEMA against Watali.

During the investigation, it was found that Watali maintained Non-Resident External and Non-Resident Ordinary accounts by mis-declaring himself as Non-Resident Indian. The ED also found that Watali transmitted foreign remittances to the tune of over Rs 6 lakh during 2002-2003 to 2008-2009 in these accounts from overseas.

As Watali could not provide satisfactory answers as to the source of funds collected overseas and subsequent remittances to India, the ED issued show cause notice against him under FEMA. Importantly, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a bid to curb terror funding and subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir arrested a businessman from Srinagar Zahoor Ahmad Watali on August 17, 2017 due to his alleged involvement in terror funding case and anti-India operations.

The NIA file charge sheet against Watali and others on January 18 this year which stated that some senior Pakistani Embassy officials gave money to Hurriyat leaders, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Shah, for carrying out terror attacks, orchestrating violence, stone pelting and other subversive and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The NIA charge sheet named Watali as a conduit for transferring funds from Pakistan to Kashmiri separatists through business operations in Dubai. The charge sheet also added that Watali routed money through fake companies floated in Dubai and remitted to the Hurriyat leaders in Jammu and Kashmir.

The NIA arrested Watali after the probe agency raided the house and office of Devinder Singh Behl in money laundering case and arrested him from his residence. Before Behl’s arrest, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders including Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Shah and moderate Hurriyat chairman’s close aide Shahid-ul-Islam were also detained by NIA seven Kashmiri separatist leaders including Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Shah and moderate Hurriyat chairman’s close aide Shahid-ul-Islam.

Prior to the arrest of Devinder Singh Behl and seven other separatists, NIA raided eight and fourteen locations of Delhi, Haryana and Kashmir respectively in connection with the terror funding case. The case came into the limelight after a sting operation surfaced in which he purportedly confessed by Nayeem Khan to receiving funds from Pakistan to create unrest in the Kashmir Valley. After this, Geelani suspended Khan from the basic membership of Hurriyat conference in May.

Hafeez Saeed, a Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud Dawa, the front of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, has been named in the FIR as an accused, in addition to organizations such as the Hurriyat Conference, Hizbul Mujaheedin and Dukhtaran-e-Milat. The NIA in the same context had also searched the premises of others like Shahid-ul-Islam, an aide of Farooq's, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference. The NIA had recovered some account books, Rs 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including the LeT and the Hizbul Mujahideen, during its searches.

In 2002, the Income Tax department had raided the establishments of some separatist leaders, including Geelani, and seized cash and documents. Interestingly, this the first time since the rise of militancy in Kashmir in the early 1990s, NIA had carried out raids in connection with the funding of separatists.

On the other side, Watali’s link to politicians of Pakistan are also known publically. Watali is also in direct or frequent contact with former PoK chief minister Sardar Ateaq Khan, Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary and Federation of Pakistan's Chambers of Commerce and Industry vice-president Haji Tariq Shafi. Also, he had invited Ateaq Khan, Chaudhary and Shafi to his son Yasin Ahmed Watali's wedding in Srinagar in September 2011.

Watali was earlier arrested in 1990 by Jammu and Kashmir police, when some anti-national activists were found present in his house at Bagat Barzulla, Srinagar. He was taken into custody along with Yaseen Malik, Sajjad Gani Lone, Bilal Lone and others and was jailed for eight months at Jammu. In 2009, Watali was accused of illegal encroachment of a land and assault, and a case was registered against him at Parimpora police station in Srinagar.

The ED is also conducting the investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Watali and others related to the terror funding of Jammu and Kashmir based terrorist organization.