ED tells court Separatist Shabir Shah admits to receiving terror financing from Pakistan

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday told a Delhi court that Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader Shabir Shah has admitted to receiving funds from Pakistan's terror outfits to spread terror in Jammu and Kashmir and others parts of India.

His close aide, Mohammad Aslam Wani also admitted to his complicity in the crime, the ED said.

The Enforcement Directorate filed the charge sheet in a Delhi Court against Separatist leader Shabir Shah in connection with a decade-old money laundering case against terror funding.

In the charge sheet, the ED states that Shabir Shah has admitted that he talks to Hafiz Saeed on phone on the issue of Kashmir, and last spoke to him in January 2017.

Shah also confessed to have received funds from terror outfits from Pakistan to promote terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir and others parts of India.

With no source of income of his own, Shah admitted that he does not file any Income Tax Return regarding his income, and that he only receives donations in cash from locals and his well-wishers towards party fund which amounts to Rs eight to ten lakhs per annum.

Meanwhile, Shah's close aide, Mohammad Aslam Wani admitted to receiving Hawala money from Pakistan's Hawala operative Shafi Shayar, on behalf of Shabir Shah, in Delhi.

Earlier in August, the Delhi High Court rejected the bail plea of Shah after the Enforcement Directorate said it was probing whether he had received money from "enemy countries" like Pakistan to promote terrorism in India.

On 7 September, ED opposed the bail plea of Aslam Wani in a Delhi court, saying that he had a key role in bringing money from Pakistan for terror activities in Kashmir.

On 25 July, ED had arrested Shah in connection with a money laundering case dating back to 2005, while his close aide Aslam Wani was arrested on August 6.

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

-ANI