‘Two Ministers contested 2002 polls on Rs 1 Cr Pak money’
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
Police officials refused to make comment but Early Times learned from reliable authoritative sources that Srinagar Police has arrested one Hira Lal of Delhi when it had laid a trap to catch some fake currency operatives red-handed. During sustained interrogation, Hira Lal identified himself as a resident of Tatesar village in Delhi outskirts and claimed to be a property dealer.
When sleuths conducted verification of Hira Lal’s statement, he turned out to be the confidante of a slain separatist leader. His disclosures also led to the arrest of a woman, namely Hajira Banoo of Lolab, Kupwara, who was also suspected to be part of the fake currency racket and subjected to sustained interrogation.
According to informed sources, Hira Lal disclosed that two particular businessmen-turned-politicians had contested 2002 Assembly elections after receiving Rs 50 Lakh each through him from Pakistan . Both the Independent candidates, who successfully contested their maiden elections from Handwara and Habbakadal respectively, were later inducted as Ministers by then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Dogged by controversies, one of these politicians later landed in the infamous Srinagar Sex Scandal after he was dropped by Mufti’s successor Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. He was arrested and released on bail after several months of imprisonment. While as CBI conducted raids on his Srinagar residence, Income Tax sleuths raided his Green Belt house in Jammu while investigating his earnings in a pharmaceutical company.
According to sources, Hira Lal has revealed that he had come into the contact of a separatist leader and a Srinagar-based businessman hailing from Handwara in early 1990s when he sold a property to the politician in Delhi . When he demanded the outstanding amount, the politician asked him to contact one ‘commander Bilal Rahi’ in Islamanad who owed him some money and would manage to send it to the Delhi-based property dealer.
Hira Lal has claimed that he received an amount of over Rs 5 Crore from the channel in Pakistan and later passed it over to the Srinagar-based businessman who, according to him, delivered the money on the politician’s family. He has claimed that the politician’s sons later spent the same money on acquiring land and houses at Punjab Khour village, Chermud village and Greater Kailash in Delhi besides a house in Srinagar . He has revealed that, as advised by the Srinagar-based businessman, he contacted a former J&K Chief Engineer’s family in Gurgaon and later transferred his house through a gift deed to one of the politician’s sons after deducting a part of a money consignment that was handed over to the seller.
Even as Police declined to either confirm or contradict Hira Lal’s arrest and his sensational disclosures, informed sources maintained that the detainee’s statement was being verified in close coordination with Delhi Police.
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