ED summons daughter of Shabir Shah in PMLA case of 2005 when she was 5-year-old

Srinagar: The 19-year-old daughter of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah has been summoned twice by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case of 2005.

Sama Shabir, who is studying law in Manchester in the United Kingdom, was issued summons at her home in Srinagar. The first date for her to appear before the agency was on April 18 and the second on Wednesday.

Shah was arrested on July 25, 2017 in the 2005 case related to money laundering and alleged financing of terror groups.

The ED had registered a case in 2007 based on the investigation by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in the August 2005 case, wherein the police had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

Sama’s mother, 48-year-old Bilquies Shah, a doctor by profession, has been moving from pillar to post informing the Enforcement Directorate units here, Jammu as well as its headquarters in New Delhi that her daughter is pursuing her studies in the UK and should be exempted from personal appearance.

Bilquies had to prepare a reply to the summon issued by the ED for Wednesday.

“My daughter Sama Shabir is pursuing her education at the University of Manchester in the UK and it has (been) communicated to your good self through a speed post letter dated 15-04-2019,” she said in her reply to the Assistant Director (PMLA) of the ED.

Sama Shabir was in news last year after she topped the CBSE class 12 exam by scoring 97.8 per cent marks

“Well, while I am completing all legal formalities, I wonder what does she have to do with a case of 2005 when she had just turned five years. How can this happen? It is really a pure case of harassment and the real purpose is known to the authorities only,” Bilquies told PTI.

“I am now preparing to receive a summon for my younger daughter Seher, who was three at the time when this case happened,” she said.

The mother said the house attached by the ED was built on a land that she had inherited from her father in 1999.

“I took a loan of Rs 20 lakh from Jammu and Kashmir Bank and built the house and the same has been attached now. Is this not an irony. I received an attachment notice and so did my two daughters who were not even born at that time,” she said.

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Aslam Wani.

Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through ‘hawala’ channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.

During questioning, he had told the police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission.

Wani, who hails from Srinagar, had also claimed that he delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple instalments over the past year. The ED is probing the “proceeds of crime” of alleged terror financing in this case. (PTI)