ED summons Mehbooba Mufti's mother Gulshan Nazir in money laundering case; PDP terms it political vendetta

New Delhi/Srinagar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned the mother of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti for questioning in a money laundering case, officials said on Thursday. They said Gulshan Nazir, in her seventies, has been asked to appear before the central probe agency at its office in Srinagar on 15 April. Mufti, 61, also the president of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was questioned in this case on 25 March in Srinagar. After her five-hour-long questioning that day, Mufti had told reporters that central agencies like the NIA, CBI and the ED were being “misused” to silence the opposition. A PDP spokesperson said the latest summons are “part of the political vendetta against Mehbooba Mufti and PDP”. “It is an attempt to stop her from giving voice to the sentiments of the people in which they have failed miserably,” the statement read. Nazir is the wife of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The criminal case filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is linked to the recovery of at least two diaries by the ED, after raids on an alleged associate of Mufti, in which some purported payments made from the chief minister’s discretionary fund were made in alleged contravention of rules. These funds are alleged to have been diverted during the tenure of Mufti as the chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. A few lakh of rupees from these funds are alleged to have been transferred into the account of Nazir and some others about which the ED wants to question her. The J-K Police CID had recently rejected the passport applications of Nazir and Mufti following adverse police reports against the mother and the daughter. .