Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association scam: CBI case registered against 2 ex-officials

The Central Bureau of Investigation, on Monday, registered a case against two ex-officials of Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association for their alleged role in the Rs 113 crore scam. The accused persons, identified as Saleem Khan and Mohamad Ahsan Mirza, were then general secretary and then treasurer of JKCA, respectively.

"CBI took over the case registered under Section 120B, 406, 409 of Ranbir Penal Code on the allegations that the accused had committed criminal breach of trust by misappropriation of JKCA funds and operated bogus accounts in different branches of Jammu & Kashmir Bank under their joint signatures," said the agency's spokesperson RK Gaur.

Both Mirza and Khan were granted anticipatory bail by a trial court in Srinagar.

The alleged scam also involves senior leaders of the National Conference, the main opposition party in J&K that is now headed by the former CM Omar Abdullah. The alleged involvement of Farooq Abdullah, also a former CM and a former Union Minister in the previous UPA regime, was cited as one of the main reasons by the court for handing over the probe to CBI.

According to documents accessed by dna, Abdullah (Sr), alongwith both Khan and Mirza, was found to be held responsible for commission of prima facie offences under Section 406, 168 and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code for making JKCA a lending agency and operating as many as 18 bogus bank accounts.

In 2012, an in-house advisory committee set up to probe the alleged scam was looking into the funds received by the association from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 2002-03 to December 31, 2011. The team had worked out the misappropriation to be around Rs 40,53,48,748 out of the total Rs 113.67 crore received by the JKCA.

During the course of the investigation, it was also found that as per the Constitution of JKCA, any office bearer from among chairman and general secretary was authorised to operate the bank along with the treasurer, whose signature was mandatory. However, after elections of 2011, a resolution was adopted in terms whereof any two of the office bearers excluding president, JKCA, could be authorised to operate bank accounts under their joint signatures.

The probe committee believes that this was done to keep Mirza in control of financial matters despite the fact that he ceased to be the treasurer after 2011 association elections.

"The very fact that the president of JKCA is a tall political personality, whose complicity is alleged in granting approval to two contradictory resolutions pertaining to operation of accounts of JKCA to keep accused Ahsan Mirza in control of financial matters despite his ceasing to be a treasurer, coupled with the fact that one of the beneficiaries, namely Aslam Goni, indicted by the interim report has swindled amount exceeding Rs 40 crore together with Ahsan Mirza and Saleem Khan having served the state as advocate general in the former regime, rendered it imperative that investigation is transferred to CBI," the J&K High Court had observed.