Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Dec 3: Taking serious note of infamous Rs 300 crore scam in Jammu & Kashmir Cooperative Supply & Marketing Federation Limited (JAKFED), Minister for Cooperatives & Ladakh Affairs, Chering Dorjay today said that he has recommended a CBI probe into the matter.
The Minister has also asked the Government that the case be immediately forwarded to CBI for investigation.
Talking to Excelsior, the Minister said that it is an old scam which was noticed by the House Committee of the J&K Legislative Council some years back and he had recommended the State Government to order a CBI probe into the matter to punish the culprits who have put the State exchequer to a heavy loss.
“The case is presently being investigated by the State Vigilance Organization, but I have written to the Government to forward it immediately to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for thorough probe,” Dorjay said.
He said the scam has been unearthed by House Committee which too had recommended a probe into the matter and punishment to guilty. Besides, the Pillai Commission which was constituted by the Government has categorically said that the scam has surfaced in the JAKFED.
Moreover, the House Committee of Legislative Council in its report was of the opinion that the scam has been found. “So to know the facts, I have communicated to the Government to refer the case to CBI,” the Minister said, adding that he has also asked Chief Secretary, B B Vyas to take immediate action in this regard so that the people responsible for the scam don’t go scot free.
High placed sources said that in the Rs 300 crore scam, fake movement of fertilizers and food grains was shown by the culprits who have gone scot free till date. Sources said many heads may roll once the CBI probe is conducted into the scam.
Sources said that the investigation conducted by various agencies in the case has still not been taken to the logical end. “The big fish, responsible for the scam, were creating hurdles into the investigation so that they can go scot-free”. “Though in a normal course the investigations in corruption related cases are time bound so that the culprits are punished under law of the land. But in this particular case nobody is ready to punish the culprits,” sources added.
Sources said a meeting to decide the future course of action regarding the investigation in the scam and the action required on a report concluded by the agencies, recently a meeting was convened in the office chambers of the Chief Secretary. The meeting was attended by the Vice Chairman of JAKFED along with his team of officers of the company. The meeting was also attended by various senior bureaucrats and the report was tabled before the Committee headed by Chief Secretary, sources disclosed.
This report also strongly favoured that the final course of action be taken and the culprits, responsible for this scam be apprehended besides the trend of malpractice in the organization be arrested.
The embezzlement of Rs 300 crore was detected by the House Committee of the J&K Legislative Council in JAKFED and the Government has on record said that appropriate action would be initiated against the culprits.
The Government had said that 21 employees were allegedly involved in the embezzlement and that the timely action on the House Committee report was taken by the Organisation.
Sources said that, the Chief Secretary was approached to take further action after going through necessary legal formalities.
The House Committee report was later forwarded to the Vigilance Organization on May 29, 2015 for intimating whether there were any similarities in the findings of the House Committee which in its report had intimated to Government that there is similarity in respect of the allegations and part of the period mentioned in the House Committee report, sources maintained.
Sources said that the auditors in the past have also pin pointed the irregularities during their course of audit but nothing concrete was done to set the things right.
It is to mention here that the State Government had ordered One Man Commission headed by K.B. Pillai to probe Rs 300 crore JAKFED scam where in the Commission had established fake movement of fertilizer and food grains and recommended the termination of those involved in the scam.
A report of this Commission was also tabled in the State Legislative Assembly over which the elected representatives had many times raised hue and cry.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel