High Court Denies ED Bid to Add New Charges Against Farooq Abdullah

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has turned down a request from the Enforcement Directorate to add fresh property-related charges against National Conference president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in the JKCA scam case. Justice Sanjay Parihar stated in the order that the request to add charges under Sections 411 and 424 of the Ranbir Penal Code does not merit acceptance based on the material currently available. These specific sections deal with offences involving property acquired illegally or through asset manipulation. The court noted that the required ingredients for framing these additional charges are not made out at this stage. However, the court clarified that this decision does not block the trial court from altering or adding charges if new material emerges during the trial. Earlier, senior advocate Syed Faisal Qadri, representing Mr. Abdullah, argued that the application was moved to overcome jurisdictional hurdles under the PMLA rather than being based on any fresh material discovery. The ED had previously cited a CBI report regarding alleged funds of 112.13 crore rupees in the JKCA in 2012, claiming that about 43.69 crore rupees were misappropriated during Mr. Abdullah's tenure as president, with funds diverted to personal accounts for private business dealings. The CBI filed a chargesheet in 2018 following a 2012 court order, while the ED filed a fresh case in 2019 after which Dr. Abdullah was questioned multiple times. In 2024, the High Court had quashed the chargesheet filed by the ED.