ED seizes Ggn property linked to Hafeez Saeed

Gurgram: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday attached Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali's immovable property in Gurugram in connection with its probe into the terror funding case in Jammu and Kashmir. In what has come as a major revelation, it is also believed by the agency that a huge amount of funds of terrorist Hafiz Saeed money is also invested in the bungalow that is situated in the posh area of DLF Phase-2.

After the revelation, the National Investigating Agency has begun the investigations in the matter. "We have attached a property, worth Rs 1.3 crore, of Watali in Gurugram," a senior ED official said adding that it was done under the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED has registered a case of money laundering against several separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir based on the FIR filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in May 2017. According to ED officials, Watali, who was arrested in August 2017 by the NIA, "acted as the fund manager to many persons to park the money received from across the border" to stoke unrest in the state. Watali was granted bail by the Delhi high court in September 2018.

The NIA had on January 18 last year filed a charge sheet against 12 persons including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in the case of alleged funding of militancy in the Kashmir Valley.