Delhi HC Stays ED Summons Issued to Former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti

Mufti had moved Delhi High Court challenging the summons issued to her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

File image of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.

(File photo: PTI)

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, 10 March, stayed the summons issued to former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and People's Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Mehbooba Mufti by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case, her counsel said.

According to the ED lawyer, the matter has been adjourned to 19 March on the agency's statement that it will not insist on her appearance on 15 March.

The 61-year-old leader had moved Delhi High Court on Tuesday, challenging the summons issued to her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The petitioner had received a summon on 5 March. The petition stated that she had not been informed whether she was being summoned as an accused or as a witness.

"The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge," the plea added.

She apprehended that the summon was a means of bringing undue pressure and harassment upon her.

“Ever since the petitioner was released from preventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370, there have been a series of hostile acts by the State, against her acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, in the course of which their personal devices have been seized,” the plea stated.

Mufti had been asked to join the investigation on 15 March at 11.30 am at the ED’s office in the national capital.