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Updated: Mar 22, 2019 21:51 IST

Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, has been booked under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for illegally possessing foreign exchange of US $10,000, the Enforcement Directorate said on Friday.

Geelani had been fined Rs 14.40 lakh following the confiscation of the unaccounted foreign exchange from his premises in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, the agency said.

“The adjudication proceeding in case of Syed Ali Shah Geelani for the offence of illegally possessing foreign exchange was completed on March 20 by levying penalty of Rs 14.40 lakh on him along with confiscation of foreign exchange US $ 10,000,” said an ED statement.

The ED took over the case following an Income Tax Department complaint against Geelani.

The agency said it will also impose a penalty and confiscate the illegal acquisition of foreign exchange recovered from another separatist leader Yasin Malik, former Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The adjudication proceedings against Malik are in progress.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.)