ED raids multiple locations in Srinagar, Anantnag districts in J&K Bank money laundering case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday conducted multiple raids in Kashmir in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to alleged suspicious transactions in the J&K Bank. The central probe agency covered a total of seven locations — six in Srinagar and one in Anantnag district — as part of the searches conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED said it raided Mohd Ibrahim Dar, Murtaza Enterprises, Azad Agro Traders, M&M Cottage Industries, and Mohd Sultan Teli who are “involved” in the hospitality and agro-based industries, civil construction, and real estate businesses. “The searches resulted in the recovery of evidence of money laundering as the bank accounts have been found to be used for routing suspicious transactions,” it said. The ED is probing the case after studying an earlier FIR filed by the CID of the UT Police in Srinagar against officials of J&K Bank, unidentified public servants, private persons, and others for suspicious transactions in various bank accounts. The CID FIR, the ED said, alleges that bank accounts were used for routing money of public servants as well as some private parties. Certain bank officials, in connivance with these public servants, deliberately omitted to raise the alerts as required under anti-money laundering norms, the ED said quoting the CID FIR. The central probe agency said its probe “so far has revealed that the transactions in many of these bank accounts maintained with J&K Bank were not genuine and these accounts were utilised for the purpose of laundering”. ED sleuths are recording the statement of the people covered in the searches “to unravel the source of huge credits and debits in their accounts”. “Recovered incriminating documents and soft data are also being analysed,” it said.