SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was on Thursday questioned by the officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its Srinagar office for over five hours in connection with a money laundering case.
After the questioning, Mehbooba said dissent has been criminalised and asserted there won’t be any change in her party’s stand on the Kashmir issue and Article 370 restoration. Mehbooba had earlier skipped ED summons on March 15 and 22 to New Delhi saying she cannot travel to the national capital as she had got prior commitments that cannot be cancelled.
She had also moved the Delhi High Court to quash the ED summons but the court on March 19 refused to stay the summons. Talking to reporters after the marathon questioning, Mehbooba said, “They questioned me over two issues — our ancestral property at Bijbehara and how I used the CM’s secret funds.” “They asked me if I provided money to widows and who was providing the list of widows and who was identifying them,” she said.
Alleging that dissent has been criminalised in the country, the former chief minister said, “Whosoever opposes the government is either being booked under sedition or money laundering charges and the NIA, ED and CBI are being used against them.” “The country is not being run according to the Constitution but according to a political party’s agenda,” she said.