JK Agro targets whistleblower, fails to implement HC order
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 14: Despite passage of 3 years, the Crime Branch is yet to register a case in the major fraud that surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir State Agro Industries Development Corporation Limited (J&K AIDCL) where blue eyed candidates were selected as Assistant Managers on invalid and fake certificates while deserving were left out.
And on the other hand the J&K AIDCL is targeting the whistleblower, Mir Tafveez Mehmood, who is one of the eligible candidate for the post of Assistant Managers Marketing in the department and has not been considered despite the directions issued by the High Court in 2016.
Sources in the Crime Branch said that the Preliminary Verification (PV No. 66 of 2017) has been submitted by the Senior Superintendent of Police Crime Branch to the Inspector General of Police Crime Branch last year but the IG office is sitting over the file under the influence of top bureaucrats and politicians whose sons and daughters and relatives were fraudulently appointed in the department. The PV has highlighted many procedural errors in the selection process adopted by the J&K AIDCL.
It may be mentioned here that four candidates Adnan Ashraf Mir, Farooq Ahmad Mir, Talat Waheed Banday and Shafia Shabir were selected as Assistant Manager Marketing, Assistant Manager Cattle Feed, Assistant Manager Food Production and Assistant Manager Marketing in J&K AIDCL respectively in 2014 and the documents of the department suggested fraud in the selection process.
The Crime Branch took the cognizance of the case after the Excelsior exposed the fraud. The PV was completed by the SSP Crime last year and submitted to the IG Crime where it is pending for last one year for sanction to register FIR.
One of the candidates, Mir Tafveez Mehmood, who was in the waiting list at number 2 for the post of Assistant Manager Marketing approached the High Court that both the selected candidates on the post – Adnan Ashraf Mir and Shafia Shabir were having fake and invalid degrees.
Sensing trouble, Mir resigned from the Department on 16-05-2016 and Shafia was terminated (vide Govt order no. Agro/Adm/(96)AIDCL of 2016 dated 16-05- 2016) in the same year. Mir was asked to resign and Shafia terminated as the then MD Abdul Majid Bhat was also in soup as he had not verified their degrees.
The High Court ordered that Tafveez should be considered for the post of Assistant Manager Marketing as both the selected candidates were no longer in the department. “In case respondent no. 7 (Shafia Shabir) is no more on the rolls of the official respondents, then they shall consider the petitioner (Tafveez) for his engagement as Assistant Manager Marketing” reads the HC order (SWP N0. 1978/14 dated 06-10-2016).
The then Managing Director of J&K AIDCL, Asif Khan, in his affidavit (Oct 31, 2016) before the HC submits that case of Tafveez will be placed before the Board of Directors and will be considered for appointment as per Court directions.
The Board of Directors in the 65th Board of Directors meeting (No. Agro/MD/F-198/599 dated 23-09-2017) decided that legal opinion of the Advocate General would be sought in the matter before taking any decision.
The Advocate General, however, asked the department to implement the Court order. “That as the Corporation has chosen not to challenge the order dated 06-10-2016, the Corporation under law is duty bound to consider the case of the petitioner strictly in accordance with the direction dated 06-10-2016 for his engagement as Assistant Manager Marketing against the vacant post”, read the opinion of AG (No. AG/ESS/OPN/2017/446 dated 01-11-2017).
The AG’s opinion came in favour of Tafveez despite the then Acting Managing Director, Rakesh Khajuria, placing wrong information before him in which he had stated that Tafveez is at rank number 8 in the selection list of Assistant Manager Marketing while as per the response to the RTI (No. Agro/ADM/681 dated 10-01-2017) by the department, Tafveez is at second place (under roll no 1152) in the waiting list and at rank 4 in the merit list. Khajuria was Examination Chairman when the appointment fraud took place.
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