Multi-crore Roshni land scam
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 27: Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Tashi Rabstan today directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau to submit the latest and updated status of all the FIRs pertaining to multi-crore Roshni land scam in a tabulated form by or before the next date of hearing.
The DB also directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau to disclose the particulars of the persons against whom the prosecution was sought.
The directions were passed in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting encroachment of 20 lakh kanals of State land by the powerful land mafia in league with politicians, revenue and police officers.
When the PIL came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed drew the attention of the Division Bench towards Miscellaneous Petition filed by Advocate Ankur Sharma seeking entrustment of multi-crore Roshni land scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“Pursuant to the unearthing of the Roshni land scam by the Accountant General J&K the then Director of Vigilance had constituted four Special Investigating Teams (SITs) each headed by the concerned Branch SSPs of Vigilance Organization initially covering districts of Jammu, Samba, Udhampur, Srinagar, Budgam and Pulwama”, he submitted, adding “more than 15 FIRs were registered by the State Vigilance Organization at Jammu and Srinagar against various District Collectors and the beneficiaries regarding the illegal conferment of ownership rights of State land”.
“The Division Bench from time to time passed various orders in the instant PIL for monitoring of the investigation in these FIRs”, he said, adding “in view of the demarcation of more than 66000 kanals of JDA land in Jammu/ Samba districts upon the directions of the Division Bench the Miscellaneous Application regarding Roshini land scam could not be considered by the Division Bench and SVO also did not apprise the Division Bench about the current status of the multi-crore scam”.
Advocate Ahmed vociferously argued that investigation in 15 FIRs has been completed but the SVO is yet to launch prosecution in the court of law against the accused involved in the scam. “The GAD granted prosecution sanction with regard to small fries like Patwaries, Girdawars, Naib-Tehsildars only and gave immunity to the big sharks by not forwarding their cases to the competent authority— DoPT Government of India”, he added.
After hearing Advocates Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, Supriya Chouhan and Mohd Zulkarnain Chowdhary for the petitioner whereas Deputy Advocate General Raman Sharma for Anti-Corruption Bureau, the DB directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau to disclose the particulars of the persons against whom the prosecution was sought and file updated status of all the FIRs.
Division Bench also allowed time to Senior AAG S S Nanda appearing for Divisional Commissioner Jammu to file the updated status report of the retrieval of the JDA land which is being demarcated in Jammu/ Samba districts on the directions of the Division Bench.
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