Loan fraud case: Hilal Rather rebuts charges made by J-K ACB

The family of Hilal Rather, booked in a Rs 177-crore bank loan fraud case by the CBI, has rebutted the charges made by the Jammu and Kashmir Anti Corruption Bureau, including funds being transferred to subversive elements.

A statement issued by the legal counsel of Hilal Rather, the son of former Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, on Saturday said that having failed in its primary task of holding public officials accountable, the ACB was trying to give a different colour to the case by resorting to canards and false accusations.

"The agency claims there are 'international ramifications' and a 'possibility of stashing of funds and diversion of funds to subversive elements'," it said.

It said the agency has resorted to baseless insinuations after investigating a matter for nine months which is nothing but a tacit admission of their failure and an attempt to wash their hands off the case by handing it over to another agency, the CBI, so that the case can be kept alive in the media trial rooms, it said.

The case has been handed over to the CBI by the Jammu and Kashmir ACB which has re-registered the FIR in the matter, they said.

In the reasons for transferring the case, the ACB had said possibility of diversion of loan funds "to subversive elements cannot be ruled out."
The statement said if indeed Rs 26 crore was diverted from the project, then how is it that more money than the Rs 128 crore provided by the bank for construction has been spent on it?