ED chargesheets former BOPEE chairman under PMLA

After attaching his Rs 60 lakh assets, ED today filed a charge sheet against former JK Chairman of Board of Professional Entrance Examination Mushtaq Ahmad Peer in connection with its money laundering probe in an alleged question paper leak scam in the state.
The charge sheet was filed in the Sessions court here under various section of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, six months after the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case against Peer which was based on an FIR of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The agency has named Peer's daughter Iqra in the charge sheet alleging that the money of the proceeds of crime were sent to her bank account.

In its FIR, the ED has sought to continue investigations in the case to establish the role of other suspects including middlemen in the case.
ED had identified Peer's assets and cash in bank accounts in Delhi and Kashmir and issued attachment orders identifying them as "proceeds of crime" derived from alleged corruption money of the scam.
Earlier, the JK Police's Crime Branch had submitted a charge sheet, in the Common Entrance Test paper leak case, against Peer and 24 others before the Special Judge (Anti Corruption), Kashmir, M L Manhas, at his residence in Jammu.

This JK police charge sheet was filed against Peer, the main accused in the scam along with his accomplices including Farooq Ahmad Yatoo, alleged broker Sajad Ahmed Bhat, Haroon and Farooq Ahmad Shah who allegedly purchased the papers from Peer and then sold them to students for a hefty fee.

The Crime Branch's Kashmir had received a letter from the state government on July 7 last year along with enclosures wherein it was alleged that reports were received about irregularities committed by BOPEE authorities while conducting the CET examination on June 23-24, 2012, during which question papers were leaked in return for money.
The Crime Branch, which was directed by the government to probe the matter, conducted a preliminary inquiry into the conduct of Common Entrance Test during 2011, 2012 and 2013.
During the preliminary probe, it was learnt that Farooq Ahmed Itoo, owner of a computer institute and a close associate of then BOPEE Chairman Ahmad, had sold the question papers to some candidates of CET-2012.

The charge sheet said the selection list of 2011 and 2012 obtained from BOPEE found that a number candidates from a particular area made it to the top of MBBS merit list in 2012.
The probe showed BOPEE officers in league with Itoo and others had abused their official position to leak the questions.