ED files supplementary chargesheet against separatist leader Shabir Shah's wife in terror financing case

New Delhi [India], September 17 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary chargesheet in Delhi's Patiala House court in connection with a money laundering case related to terror financing involving Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah.
The supplementary chargesheet, filed before Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana, named Shabir Shah's wife Dr Bilquies Shah as an accused in the case. Earlier, only Shabir Shah and alleged Hawala dealer Mohd Aslam Wani were named as accused in the chargesheet.
Advocates Rajiv Awasthi and Naveen Kumar Matta, representing the ED, filed the supplementary chargesheet on Wednesday. The court has slated the supplementary chargesheet for consideration on November 9, along with the main case.
According to the supplementary chargesheet, Dr Bilquies Shah and Shabir Ahmad Shah had received an amount of Rs 2.08 crore from Mohd Aslam Wani.
Aslam Wani, in his statements recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, had admitted that all the amounts were in cash and were handed over to Shabir Ahmad Shah and on three occasions to Dr Bilquies Shah.
Bilquies had received the said amount knowing fully well that her husband had no known sources of income and this money could not have been obtained through illicit means, the supplementary chargesheet said.
"It clearly implies that Dr Bilquies Shah was an active accomplice of Shabir Ahmad Shah in his illicit criminal activities. She did not file Income Tax Returns during the period preceding to the year 2013 as she had no other income except meagre income from private practice, besides her salary to declare," ED said in the chargesheet.
It said that in spite of giving repeated opportunities, no evidence had been provided by the appellant or her father about the licit nature of funds used to acquire the impugned property in the year 2000 as her father retired from a government job and received a total retirement benefit of approximately Rs 2.5 lakh.
It said that the acquisition of proceeds of crime and its integration into the mainstream economy by way of placement on monthly expenses and investment in immovable properties and insurance policies, its projection and claim has led to the commission of the offence of money laundering defined under Section 3 of the PMLA, 2002.
The ED, in its chargesheet, said that Bilquies was directly or indirectly indulging in and actually involved in all or any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime including its concealment, possession, acquisition or use and projecting or claiming it as untainted property.
According to the economic offences watchdog, Shabir Ahmad Shah is the main accused in the complaint pending trial before the court and he is the conspirator who had devised the whole scheme of money laundering to obtain illicit funds from outside India to further the nefarious
designs of causing unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Shabir Ahmad Shah was in regular touch with Hafeez Sayeed, a global terrorist, head of Jamat-ud-Dawa, an organization banned under United Nations Security Council resolution. Shabir Ahmad Shah was in regular touch with Mohd Shafi Shayar, based in Pakistan, whose Pakistani phone number was provided by him to Mohd Aslam Wani for collecting the crime money in Delhi on his behalf," the chargesheet said.
It said that Shabir Ahmad Shah had taken the services of Aslam Wani on a commission basis plus reimbursement of expenses, to collect crime money from Pakistan at Delhi and to carry
the same for onward delivery to him or his wife Dr Bilquies Shah.
Wani used to receive hawala money from Pakistan at Delhi and carried the same to Srinagar on the directions of Shabir Ahmad Shah and in lieu of these services, he was paid money by Shabir Shah, the chargesheet said.
Wani was on August 26, 2005, apprehended by special cell officers in South Delhi and
5 kgs of explosive, one pistol with fifteen live cartridges and cash of Rs 62,96,000 were seized from his possession.
Wani had later admitted that out of the Rs 62,96,000, he was to deliver Rs 52,96,000 to Shabir Shah in Srinagar and the remaining Rs 10 lakhs were to be paid to Jaish-e-Mohammad, ED said in the supplementary chargesheet.
Shabir Shah, who is currently undergoing judicial custody in Delhi's Tihar Jail, had earlier submitted before a court in defence that there is no evidence of any nature connecting Shabir Shah with Aslam Wani. He had submitted that he is a respectable person and is a known political leader. He is a chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party and allegations levelled against him are motivated and based on falsehood.