Jammu and Kashmir High Court rejects ED request for added charges against Farooq Abdullah

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s request to add charges of dealing with allegedly stolen or illegally obtained property against National Conference president Farooq Abdullah in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association case. Justice Sanjay Parihar said the material currently available did not prima facie establish the ingredients required for charges under Sections 411 and 424 of the Ranbir Penal Code. The court therefore declined the agency’s plea.

The ruling does not prevent the trial court from adding charges later, the judge said. If evidence emerging during the trial indicates that either offence, or another penal provision, may have been committed, the trial court can act in accordance with the law and required procedural safeguards. Abdullah’s counsel, senior advocate Syed Faisal Qadri, had argued that the Central Bureau of Investigation chargesheet disclosed offences under Sections 120-B, 406 and 409 of the RPC, but not the offences sought by the ED.

He also said the timing of the application suggested it followed a legal difficulty concerning the agency’s jurisdiction under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED’s petition referred to alleged irregularities involving ₹112.13 crore in the JKCA in 2012. It alleged that approximately ₹43.69 crore was misappropriated during Abdullah’s tenure as association president and diverted into personal accounts before being used in private business dealings.

The CBI filed a chargesheet in 2018 after a court-ordered investigation. The ED registered a separate case in 2019. The High Court quashed the ED chargesheet in 2024, according to the supplied material.