In a hard hitting letter to the Enforcement Director (ED), the former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti, on Thursday accused the investigation agency of carrying out a “witch hunt” against her by targeting her family and acquaintances. She also posted the letter on the Twitter saying; “My letter to the Director of ED, an agency being weaponised as a tool to hound political opponents by the ruling party”.

“The only common thread connecting these persons appears to be that they are all acquainted with me, my family or my politics in one way or another,” Mufti wrote in the letter. “The questioning of these persons is also focused on myself, my personal, political and financial affairs; my late father’s grave and memorial, my sister’s finances, home construction, my brother’s finances and personal affairs etc.”

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Mufti, further wrote that “a key person of the PDP”, Waheed Para, president of the party’s youth wing and who won the Pulwama seat in the recently concluded District Development Council (DDC) elections, was “arrested by the NIA in what appears to be a non-existent case around the dates of the elections.” Mufti added: “On the eve of the results, several of my relatives and party leaders were kept in unlawful detention by the J&K administration.”

In the letter, a copy of which was also marked to the secretaries of the Government of India’s Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mehbooba has also hinted that the agency’s current investigation was politically motivated. “The use of the Enforcement Directorate against political opponents is not an unknown device for a party in power at the centre,” Mufti lashed out at the ED. “I am ready and willing to face any questioning by any agency. But I will insist upon the legitimacy of the process.”

Referring to the seizure of mobile phones and other digital devices of those already summoned by the ED, she sought to draw the ED’s attention towards Section 21 (2) of the Prevention of Money- Laundering Act of 2002 — the clause states that “The person, from whom records were seized, shall be entitled to obtain copies of records retained under sub-section.”

Mehbooba added that “If there is any breach of what I consider to be the norms of law, good conduct and constitutionalism, I shall not hesitate to take the matter up legally and politically.” Mehbooba had earlier asked the BJP government to fight her politically and not through ED, CBI, NIA and other agencies.