ED conducts searches at 7 locations in J&K bank suspicious transactions case

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) conducted searches at seven places in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in a case of suspicious transactions in the J&K Bank. The searches were initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002.

An FIR was registered by the CID, CIK Srinagar against the bank officials of the J&K Bank, private persons, unidentified public servants, and others for suspicious transactions in various bank accounts of the J&K Bank. It has been alleged in the FIR that these bank accounts were used for routing money of both public servants and some private parties.

The ED conducted raids at seven locations, six of them in Srinagar and one in the Anantnag district.

"On the basis of specific information, searches at seven places belonging to Mohd Ibrahim Dar, Murtaza Enterprises, Azad Agro Traders, M & M Cottage Industries and Mohd Sultan Teli were conducted which resulted in the recovery of evidence of money laundering as the bank accounts have been found to be used for routing suspicious transactions. The parties covered under searches are involved in Hospitality and Agro-based Industries, civil construction and real estate," said ED.

Adding to that, the ED said, "Further, bank officials, in connivance with these public servants, deliberately omitted to raise the alerts as required under Anti-Money Laundering (AML) norms. The investigations conducted under PMLA so far have revealed that the transactions in many of these bank accounts maintained with J&K Bank were not genuine and these accounts were utilized for the purpose of laundering."

The ED is recording the statements of persons involved to unravel the source of credits and debits in the bank accounts.

"Statement of persons covered in the searches are being recorded to unravel the source of huge credits and debits in their accounts. Recovered incriminating documents and soft data are also being analysed," it stated.

The investigation into the case is under progress.