NIA Court Frames PMLA Charges Against Yasin Malik, 6 Others; ED Alleges Foreign Funding Through Hawala

New Delhi: A Special NIA Court in New Delhi has directed the framing of charges against Yasin Malik and six others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for allegedly receiving foreign funding from the Pakistani establishment through Hawala Channels. 

It is alleged that proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 8,94,87,639 were generated and thereafter received by the accused persons. The other accused are Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, Abdul Rashid Sheikh, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Naval Kishore Kapoor, Trison Farms and Construction Pvt Ltd, and Masarat Alam Bhat. 

It is alleged that the accused persons were involved in receiving funds from the Pakistani establishment through hawala and from other terrorist outfits by way of various means and channels to propagate their ideology and agenda of secessionism and subversive activities prejudicial to the law of the land.  Special NIA Judge Prashant Sharma directed to frame charges against seven accused persons after considering the material against them. 

"I conclude that prima facie, there is sufficient material on record based upon which strong suspicion is raised against all seven accused persons, namely Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Naval Kishore Kapoor, M/s Trison Farms and Constructions Pvt Ltd, Mohd. Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Alam and Abdul Rashid Sheikh, for which said accused persons have to be charged with offence u/sec. 3 of PMLA, punishable u/sec. 4 of PMLA," the Special Judge ordered on September 9. 

The case was listed for physical appearance of accused persons to accept or deny the charges on September 30. However, some of the accused could not be produced due to high security reasons. The court has now directed the ED to get the charges signed by them in judicial custody. The next date of hearing is October 30. Special Public Prosecutors N K Matta, Simon Benjamin, and Manish Jain appeared for ED. On the other hand, Advocate Juhi Bhargava for Accused Abdul , Zahbi Tihami for Shabir Ahmed Shah and Nishant Singh, Amicus curae, appeared for Yasin Malik.  

The Investigation conducted by ED revealed that scheduled offences resulted in generation of proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs.8,94,87,639 which were thereafter received, routed, transferred, concealed, possessed, acquired and/or used by the accused persons in various forms and through different channels. 

It is alleged that the collected money was routed through a complex system including cash couriers using conduits who gathered money from Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and delivered the funds to the Hurriyat leadership including Yasin Malik for subversive activities and for the secession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir from India. 

This ED case is based on the case registered by the NIA in 2017. Sections 120B, 121 and 121A of the IPC and Sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) were invoked. The ED recorded the present Enforcement complaint on 14.06.2017  for tracing out the proceeds of crime.  

The ED's  Allegations are that the accused Yasin Malik was the head of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), an organization involved in the terrorist and subversive activities in Jammu & Kashmir since the 1990's. 

The document seized from the house of Ghulam Mohd. Bhat, who used to work as the cashier-cum-accountant with Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali showed that the foreign contributions were received by accused Mohd Yasin Malik, accused Shabir Ahmad Shah and accused Masarat Alam through accused Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, during the financial year 2015-2016. 

The court noted that emails received and sent from an account allegedly used by accused Yasin Malik indicated that he had established an extensive network across the world to raise funds for carrying out terrorist, secessionist and other unlawful activities in Jammu and Kashmir in the name of the “freedom struggle”.

According to the allegations, the funds were used not only to sustain Malik’s organisation, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), but also to support secessionist activities and fuel violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

The court further noted that the NIA, in its second supplementary chargesheet, had stated that Malik received Rs 15,75,595 from Saudi Arabia. As per the court's observations, Malik therefore received foreign funds amounting to Rs 30,75,595 as proceeds of crime generated through criminal activity and subsequently laundered them.