A Delhi court on Wednesday framed charges against Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah and Muhammad Aslam Wani in a money laundering case.After the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial, Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma listed the matter for January 3 for recording of statement of the witnesses.Shah was arrested on July 25 on charges of money laundering in a case dating back to 2005 when the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Wani.Meanwhile, Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, has strongly rejected the charges against its incarcerated chief, Shabir Ahmad Shah.“Shabir Ahmad Shah is being targeted for his just political stance about Kashmir dispute that is why first a media trial was launched against him and later he was booked under an old case which has already been decided by a court,” a party spokesperson person said.
He said the government of India has started a campaign of character assassination against the well known resistance leader of Jammu and Kashmir so it is using old and already decided cases, the party statement said. While expressing concern over the deteriorating health of Shabir Shah, spokesperson said that instead of providing him better health assistance, he is being harassed by so called charge sheets. Quoting reports from Tihar jail, the party statement said that Shabir Shah’s health condition has deteriorated to such an extent that he fell down two days back and was helped by other inmates as he had gone unconscious. The party has stated that oppressive measures like detaining leaders like Shabir Shah won’t help instead will deteriorate further the already tense situation.The statement said that unless the Kashmir issue was resolved in line with the aspirations of Kashmiris, there can neither be peace nor stability in the south Asian region nor any oppressive measure can yield any results.