Delhi court extends separatist Shabir Shah's ED custody by one day
NEW DELHI: A court here today extended by a day the custody of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah for interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate in a decade-old money laundering case for alleged terror financing.
The ED said his custodial interrogation was necessary to ascertain his role in "anti-national activities" as well as the terror funding into India through hawala channels from countries like Pakistan, the UAE and the UK.
The agency told the court that Shah was in continuous contact with anti-national elements or terrorists residing in Pakistan, in the garb of the Kashmir issue and received various hawala consignment for "disrupting the peace of Jammu and Kashmir".
It also said that Shah's associates were to be confronted with him and the "international ramification" of financial involvement was to be unearthed.
The agency was also trying to ascertain the movable and immovable assets of Shah, who was arrested on July 25, besides unearthing the source of hawala transfers and further dissemination of the funds, it said.
The ED said that during interrogation, Shah revealed that he was obtaining donations for the Kashmir issue in cash for which he is not filing any returns and the records related to the donations was to be recovered and confronted with.
The central probe agency produced him before Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Pandit after the expiry of his seven days' custody.
The ED had sought his custody for one more week for custodial interrogation but the judge, who was on the link duty, said Shah will be produced tomorrow before Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma, who is seized of the matter and was not available for holding the court today.
Advocate M S Khan, appearing for Shah, however, opposed the ED's plea alleging that the it was not revealing complete facts before the court.
Shah was arrested by the ED a day after several Hurriyat leaders were taken into custody of the National Investigating Agency in a case of alleged terror funding in the valley to fuel unrest.
Shah's case assumes importance as investigating agencies like NIA have cracked down on the Hurriyat leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law -- Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh -- and six other separatist leaders.
The sixty-four-year-old separatist leader was arrested in connection with the August 2005 case in which the Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, claiming that Rs 63 lakh was recovered from Wani out of which Rs 52 lakh was reportedly to be delivered to Shah.
"That case was decided in 2010 where the trial court acquitted Wani of all the charges except the Arms Act. ED registered the case in 2007 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.
"In 10 years, what the ED was doing and it is still giving the reference of 2005 case, without showing the complete picture before the court," the counsel said.
The agency had earlier issued summonses to Shah in connection with the 2005 case, the prosecution had claimed that, adding that Wani had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.