The Enforcement Directorate issued a final showcause notice to Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has slapped Rs 62 lakh penalty on Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, already facing terror-funding charges, for alleged violation of foreign exchange rules and operating bank accounts in Delhi using fake NRI credentials.
The case pertains to Watali allegedly violating Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) by illegally opening non-resident savings accounts in an HSBC bank branch in Delhi by "faking" his non-resident Indian (NRI) status, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.
The federal probe agency has issued a final showcause notice, after completion of probe, to Watali for allegedly contravening the FEMA, and imposed penalty to the extent of Rs 62 lakh, it said.
"This is a case of operating NRE (non-resident external account) and NRO (non-resident ordinary account) in unauthorised manner," it said.
At the time of opening of these accounts, the agency said, Watali "submitted documents like a copy of the passport issued at Washington DC, resident visa claiming himself as a Non-Resident Indian. Whereas during this period he neither remained outside India for more than 182 days in the preceding financial year nor was his intention to remain outside India for an uncertain period."
During 2003 to 2009, Watali received inward remittances to the tune of Rs 62,93,711 in these accounts "on the strength of his fake NRI status, despite being a resident in India", the Enforcement Directorate said.
Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali holding of the accounts and allowing remittances have been considered a contravention of the provisions of sections of FEMA, read with Schedule 1 of Regulation of the Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulation, 2000, the agency said.
The Kashmiri businessman is already under the probe scanner of the ED and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of alleged terror funding and his purported links with banned Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and its chief Hafiz Saeed.
Assets worth Rs 8.94 crore of Watali in Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir), Gurgaon and other locations have been attached by the ED till now.
Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and nine others have been accused by the NIA of "conspiring to wage a war against the government" and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir Valley.
In its chargesheet, the NIA has alleged that Watali received money from ISI of Pakistan, the Pakistan High Commission here and from a source in Dubai.
Watali is at present at DelhiTihar jail, Delhi, in the NIA case.