*SVO zero-in on accused officers, FIRs to be lodged shortly
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 7: More heads are likely to roll in the biggest ever land scam in Jammu and Kashmir as State Vigilance Organization has zeroed-in on more accused officers and officials during its ongoing investigation and is all set to register more FIRs in the days to come. In order to ensure that Vigilance Organization maintains momentum of its probe, the Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Mohd Yaqoob Mir and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal today directed all the authorities including those of Revenue Department to extend full cooperation to the investigating agency so that accused are punished under law.
When the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Prof S K Bhalla Versus State of J&K and Others came up for hearing before the Division Bench, Senior Additional Advocate General, Gagan Basotra appearing for the State drew the attention of court towards the latest status report submitted by the State Vigilance Organization. He submitted that substantial progress has been made in the ongoing investigation and Vigilance Organization was contemplating to register more FIRs in the days to come against the erring officers and officials.
Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, while expressing satisfaction over the progress reflected in the latest status report, drew the attention of Division Bench towards an important aspect relating to FIR No.6 of 2014. “In this FIR, the State Vigilance Commission had directed for demarcation of five kanals and two marlas of land under Khasra No.781 of village Deeli in order to connect the accused with the commission of offence but this exercise has not been completed till date”, he added.
“Director Vigilance while mentioning that a separate case has been registered against an IAS officer, who was Vice-Chairman of Jammu Development Authority at the time of alleged vesting of ownership of JDA land to the private beneficiary, has vociferously highlighted the non-cooperation from the Revenue authorities”, he said.
In the status report, the Director Vigilance has mentioned that numerous requests in person by the Investigating Officer accompanied by written communication have been made with Deputy Commissioner Jammu in this behalf. “On our last communication dated February 24, 2015, Deputy Commissioner Jammu has referred this matter to ACR Jammu, who has further delegated the task to SDM South Jammu. But till date necessary action on the part of SDM is awaited”, Director Vigilance said in the status report.
Taking serious note of non-cooperation from the authorities of Revenue Department and to ensure that Vigilance Organization maintains momentum of the ongoing investigation, DB, in the open court, said, “suffice is to say that all the authorities including those of Revenue Department are directed to extend full cooperation to the Vigilance Organization”. The DB also directed the SVO to come up with the updated status report by or before April 27.
In the status report, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, Director Vigilance, Sheikh Owais has mentioned that 116 instances of Jammu district have been found to be meeting prima-facie pre-requisite for taking cognizance, adding “in the latest FIR case, investigation would be completed within four-five months”.
As far as FIR of Udhampur district is concerned, the status report said that during further investigations especially in the light of observations made by the State Vigilance Commission, 10 more accused persons were included in the array of accused considering their culpability in not evicting the private beneficiary accused, who were given ownership of the land despite being non-State subjects.
“The newly arrayed accused were examined and questionnaires were served to them. However, no substantial replies were tendered by them and their pleas were controverted by the IO”, the status report said, adding “further investigation of the case has been closed as proved against all the accused and case forwarded to the competent authority for accord of sanction of prosecution”.
“So far out of 61 cases of district Udhampur, scrutiny of 41 cases has been completed”, the report said, adding “five cases in which the discrepancies have been noted will be concluded after field visit which has been planned in next week and 56 cases will be concluded within two months after the record is made available”.
According to the status report, 144 instances falling within Samba district were also found to be meeting prima-facie pre-requisite for taking cognizance. All these matters pertain to vesting of ownership rights over the State land in favour of individuals, who were not having recorded possession in their names in the revenue records. Moreover, the rates were not fixed as per the provisions of the Roshni Scheme and in many cases have not been remitted to the Government treasury thereby causing huge loss to the State exchequer.
“The officers/officials of Revenue Department Samba have willfully with ulterior motives avoided to evict the illegal occupants from the State land and not put the land to auction thereby causing loss to the State exchequer and undue benefit to the beneficiaries”, the report said, adding “the matter has been taken up with DC Samba for furnishing original file numbers with respect to certain files”.
Stating that 116 instances of Srinagar district were under probe, the Director Vigilance said that two FIRs have already been registered and one more FIR is under process for registration. About Budgam district, the report said that regarding four violations case has already been registered while as two are under active pre-registration probe. “Launching of substantial probe is awaited with respect to 7th instance as the relevant file pertaining to this case is yet to be detected/provided by the concerned”, the report said.
About 19 instances, which have been found to be existing, the report said, “there has been arbitrary fixing of prices lower than prevailing market rates, incorrect application of rates and unauthorized change of classification of land”, adding “the issue is being evaluated for culpability so that FIRs are registered”. Similarly, six instances of Pulwama town are being probed for registration of FIR.
Follow our WhatsApp channel