Shabir Shah’s daughter gets 2 summons from ED, NIA to quiz Geelani’s grandson

SRINAGAR: In a rather bizarre set of circumstances, the Enforcement Directorate has summoned twice the daughter of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in connection with a money laundering case of 2005, even as the grandson of hardliner Syed Ali Geelani was summoned for questioning by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing terror funding.

Shah’s daughter, 19-year-old Sama Shabir—who was in news last year after she topped the CBSE class 12 exam by scoring 97.8 per cent marks—was five-year-old when the case in which she has been summoned was registered.

Sama, 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.

"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.

"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.

Meanwhile, after summoning his two sons, the NIA has now summoned Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani’s grandson, Anees-ul-Islam Shah for questioning at the agency’s headquarters at New Delhi on 29 April.

Anees is son of incarcerated Hurriyat leader Altaf Shah (Fantosh), who was already arrested in 2017 by NIA along with other Hurriyat leaders in a terror funding case.

The development came after the NIA questioned top separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in cases of alleged terror funding in Kashmir.

Anees came into limelight in 2016 when the Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP coalition allegedly “bent” rules to recruit him in a government job in the tourism department at a hefty salary.

The state government had denied that rules were bent to recruit him on the post of research officer in the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex (SKICC), a subsidiary of the state tourism department.

The NIA had recently accelerated investigation of the terror funding cases. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was earlier this month questioned for three days in New Delhi.

The NIA has also questioned both the sons of Geelani – Naeem and Naseem – several times in the terror funding case. Naeem, a doctor by profession, is presently posted at JLNM hospital Srinagar while Naseem works at an agricultural university in Srinagar. Both of them are under the NIA scanner for alleged terror funding.

Nayeem was also being questioned for the third consecutive day at NIA headquarters on Wednesday.