Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, who was quizzed by the Enforcement Department (ED) in Srinagar on Thursday, said her party will continue to fight for the rights of the people and the restoration of Article 370, which was diluted in 2019.
Officials said Ms. Mufti was questioned by the officials of the ED at the Srinagar office for around five hours. She was summoned in a money-laundering case.
After the questioning was over, Ms. Mufti told the media: “Dissent has been criminalised in the country. One who speaks against you [the Centre] is being either booked under sedition charges or being summoned by the investigative agencies,” she said.
Ms. Mufti, who entered into an alliance with the BJP to form the government in 2016, said: “There will be no change in the party’s strategy over fighting for the rights of the people.”
She said the ED officials questioned about her father late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s property in south Kashmir’s Bijbehara. “I was asked how I sold it and other related things. Also about the funds during my tenure as the J&K Chief Minister. I have nothing to hide,” she said.
After being summoned on March 15, she approached the court for a stay but the Delhi High Court did not grant it.
Later, in a letter to the ED, Ms. Mufti said she was not in a position to attend the summons on March 22 as she has prior commitments that cannot be cancelled at such short notice”.
However, Ms. Mufti said she was ready and willing to be questioned in Srinagar “preferably at her residence or through a video conference from Srinagar”.
