ED issues show cause notice to Kashmiri businessman
New Delhi : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued show cause notice to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, who is accused of actively working as a conduit for foreign contributions to terrorist organisations in the state, an official said on Friday.
The notice was issued under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
“Based on the intelligence input, an investigation under FEMA was initiated against Watali and it was emerged that he maintained Non Resident External and Non Resident Ordinary accounts by misdeclaring himself as Non-Resident Indian.
“He later transmitted foreign remittances to the tune of Rs 6,293,711 during 2002-2003 to 2008-2009 in these accounts from overseas,” an ED statement said.
Further, Watali could not provide satisfactory answers as to the source of funds collected
overseas and subsequent remittances to India, said the statement, adding adjudication proceedings under FEMA are in progress for the show cause notice.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had on August 17, 2017 arrested Watali here for being an active channel to receive foreign contributions from Pakistani establishment and terror organisations and remit them to Hurriyat leaders and secessionists in Jammu and Kashmirt.
The NIA, in its chargesheet on January 18 against Watali and others, has mentioned 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 chargesheet named Watali as a conduit for transferring funds from Pakistan to Kashmiri separatists through business operations in Dubai.
It said the money was also routed through fake and bogus companies floated in Dubai and remitted to the Hurriyat leaders in Jammu and Kashmir.
LeT chief Hafiz Saeed — blamed for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack — and Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin, both of who are now based in Pakistan, knew about “every transactions being pumped for terror acts in Jammu and Kashmir”.
The ED is also conducting investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Watali and others related to the terror funding of Jammu and Kashmir based terrorist organisation.
Published on: April 27, 2018 at 17:44 IST
IANS
