SRINAGAR: In relation to a Rs 250-crore money laundering case in Jammu and Kashmir, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has detained former chairman of the J&K Co-operative Bank, Muhammad Shafi Dar, according to officials on Friday. The officials stated that Dar and Mohammad Hilal A Mir, the chairman of the River Jhelum Cooperative Housing Building Society, a “fictitious firm,” were taken into custody and would be brought before a special court. On Thursday, the ED claimed to have recovered incriminating evidence from searches they had performed in connection with the case, including one at Dar’s home. According to the officials, the fraud was carried out under the guise of the “fictitious” River Jhelum Cooperative Housing Building Society.According to them, the ED’s office in Srinagar carried out the operations using the search and seizure authority granted to it by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) filed a charge sheet against Mir, Dar, and other defendants in August 2020 for offences against the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code. According to the ACB’s investigation, Mir had applied to the secretary of cooperatives, the administration department of cooperative societies, asking for guidance from the J&K Co-operative Bank regarding financial assistance of Rs 300 crore for assuming ownership of 37.5 acres of land on the outskirts of Srinagar for the construction of a satellite township.The request was forwarded to the Jammu and Kashmir Registrar of Cooperative Societies to pursue the issue with the J&K Co-operative Bank. Accordingly, the J&K Co-operative Bank in Srinagar approved a loan in the amount of Rs 223 crore during the ACB investigation. However, no formalities were followed, such as obtaining information about the society, such as its balance sheet, profit and loss, account business, activities, PAN number, income tax returns, and board resolutions. The investigation found that the River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society was not even registered with the cooperative societies registrar. Mir, working in collusion with Dar and other individuals, created a forged registration certificate in the name of the society and oversaw the loan’s approval. Although the land had not been mortgaged to the bank, it was discovered that the loan sum had been deposited into the landowners’ accounts. Furthermore, the ACB’s probe was effective in locating the Rs 223 crore that had been syphoned off. Additionally, the bureau has blocked funds totaling Rs 187 crore, according to the officials.
