Terror Funding Money Laundering Case: Court Orders PMLA Charges Against Yasin Malik, Engineer Rashid and Five Others
The Special Judge found enough material on record to raise a strong suspicion that the seven accused had dealt with ₹8.94 crore allegedly sent from Pakistan through hawala channels to fund separatist activity in Jammu and Kashmir
A Special Judge has ordered framing of charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Terrorist Yasin Malik, Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid and five others in the ED's terror funding case
Terrorist Yasin Malik, Baramulla Member of Parliament Sheikh Abdul Rashid, better known as Engineer Rashid, and five others will stand trial in a money laundering case in which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleges that funds sent from Pakistan through hawala channels were used to sustain secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Special Judge Prashant Sharma ordered that charges be framed against all seven accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), holding that the material on record was sufficient to raise a strong suspicion of their involvement in the offence.
Besides Malik, who heads the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and Rashid, the accused are Shabir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Alam, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Naval Kishore Kapoor and the company M/s Trison Farms and Constructions Pvt Ltd.
The order turns on the threshold that governs the charge stage. A court deciding whether to frame charges does not weigh the evidence as it would at the end of a trial; it asks whether the material placed by the prosecution gives rise to a strong suspicion that the accused committed the offence. Applying that standard, the Special Judge concluded that the ED's material was enough to send all seven accused to trial.
According to the ED, proceeds of crime amounting to ₹8.94 crore were generated and received, routed, transferred, concealed, possessed, acquired and used by the accused through various channels.
A money laundering prosecution under the PMLA must rest on a predicate, or "scheduled", offence. Here, the ED's case stems from a 2017 case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in which charges were invoked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).
The prosecution's case is that the accused received funds from the "Pakistani establishment" through hawala channels and other means in order to propagate secessionist activities and to carry out acts prejudicial to the law of the land.
The ED has described the alleged money trail as a complex network of cash couriers and conduits. According to the agency, these intermediaries collected funds from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and delivered them to separatist leaders, including Malik, for subversive activities.
The agency has alleged that Malik alone received foreign funds worth more than ₹3 crore and laundered the proceeds of crime. Shah and Rashid, it claims, received funds through intermediaries and maintained links with separatist organisations.
The framing of charges does not amount to a finding of guilt. The allegations against all seven accused remain to be established through trial, where the prosecution will have to prove its case and the accused will be entitled to contest the evidence against them.
Inputs: PTI