Hurriyat Chairman and Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Wednesday rebuffed the land encroachment allegations against him and said the FIR by the Jammu and Kashmir’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) was an “attempt to malign and harass him”.
ACB on May 10 filed an FIR against Mirwaiz Umar and a bureaucrat and four others in connection with allegations of encroaching evacuee land in connivance with revenue officials in Srinagar.
The FIR was filed after ACB conducted a preliminary enquiry which found that land measuring seven kanal 19 marla 97 sq ft was found encroached upon by six persons including Mirwaiz Umar. The other accused include Dil Rafiqa, bureaucrat Majid Khalil Ahmad Drabu, Mohammad Arnin Khan, Abdul Majeed Bhat and Qazi Bilal Ahmad. Drabu is the inservice IAS officer and also a brother-in law of Mirwaiz.
In a statement, Mirwaiz Manzil Nigeen on behalf of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is under “continued house detention” since May 3 said that ACB’s claim was false.
“Mirwaiz received no intimation or notice of this matter . It is part of the same vehement propaganda carried out against Mirwaiz in 2018 when multiple properties including the properties of Anjuman Auqaf Jama Masjid, Anjuman Nusratul Islam , Darul ul khair Mirwaiz Manzil were all attributed to him and later all proved to be false and baseless . These things will not cow down Mirwaiz,” the statement said.
He said the fact is that no property at present -house or land belongs to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in Nigeen.
“The residential land and house in which he lives in Nigeen was purchased and built upon by his father Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Farooq in 1973, the same year Mirwaiz Umar was born. Its boundary walls are the same since that year. After 1990 till yesterday, he had no inkling of this matter as no information or notice was ever sent or shared with him by the concerned,” the statement said.
“If as per the authorities there was any issue involved , the concerned as is the procedure should have intimated Mirwaiz instead of “instantly booking ” him in the case . The motive to malign and defame is apparent,” it added.
The statement said that Mirwaiz and his close kin who is also being implicated, is a well respected civil servant known for his integrity, neither of who have , nor will do anything that is immoral and illegal.
