A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabbir Shah’s wife Dr Bilquis Shah in a money laundering case related to terror financing.
New Delhi [India] : Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its supplementary chargesheet filed last year, named her as a new accused in the case. Shabbir Shah is presently in judicial custody in the case. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana on Friday granted bail to Dr Bilquis Shah after she physically appeared before the court. Court also directed to furnish a bail bond with two surety of 50,000 Rs each. The Court had issued summons against Dr Bilquis Shah while taking cognisance on a chargesheet in a money laundering case related to terror financing. Advocates MS Khan along with Qausar Khan and Ankit Karn appeared in the matter for Bilquis and Shabbir Shah in the matter. Advocate Naveen Kumar Matta, representing ED has opposed the bail plea. ED in its supplementary chargesheet stated that Dr Bilquies Shah along with Shabir Ahmad Shah had received an amount of Rs 2.08 crore from Mohd Aslam Wani (co-accused, currently on bail). Further, ED stated that Mohd Aslam Wani, in his statements recorded under Section 50 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 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. “She 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 licit means,” stated ED. According to the chargesheet, 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 the year 2013 as she had no other income except meagre income from private practice, besides her salary to declare. ED stated that Shabir Ahmad Shah is the main accused and is the conspirator who had devised the whole scheme of money laundering so as 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 organisation banned under UNSC resolution number 1267. He was also in 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. Shabbir Shah is currently lodged in Tihar Jail under judicial custody. In his defence, it was stated that there is no evidence of any nature connecting with Aslam Wani. “He is a respectable person and is a known political leader. He is a chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and alligations levelled against are motivated and based on falsehood,” read the statement in his defence.
