Srinagar : The recording of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s mother Gulshan Nazir’s statement by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been deferred due to Ramzan and the prevailing COVID-19 situation, officials said on Thursday.
The ED was conveyed about the same through an informal channel by Nazir, they said and added that recording of her statement is now expected to take place after a few weeks.
Nazir, in her seventies, was supposed to appear before the agency at its office here on Thursday in a case related to money laundering.
The agency would fix the next date of hearing after a few weeks, the officials said.
Mehbooba, 61, was also questioned in this case on March 25 in Srinagar.
After her five-hour-long questioning that day, Mehbooba had told reporters that central agencies like the NIA, CBI and the ED were being “misused” to silence the opposition.
The case has been filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
It is linked to the recovery of at least two diaries by the ED in which some purported payments made from the CM’s discretionary fund were made in alleged contravention of rules.
The recoveries were made during raids on an alleged associate of Mehbooba, who is a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
These funds are alleged to have been diverted during the tenure of Mehbooba as chief minister.
Few lakhs of rupees from these funds are alleged to have been transferred into the accounts of Nazir and some others about which the ED wants to question her.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s CID had recently rejected the passport applications of Nazir and Mehbooba following adverse police reports against them.
