Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 19: High Court has rejected the bail application of Hilal Ahmad Mir, the Chairman of non-existent River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society in Rs 223 crore scam.
Mohammad Shafi Dar, the then chairman of J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited, Hilal Ahmad Mir, chairman of non-existent River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, Srinagar and Abdul Hamid Hajam, secretary of the non-existent River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, Srinagar were booked by Anti-Corruption Bureau under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The ACB investigation revealed that a conspiracy was hatched between Dar, Mir, Hajam, Mohd Mujib Ur Rehman Ghasi, the then Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Syed Ashiq Hussain, Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies and others in creating the fake society in 2018-19 in order to obtain a loan from the bank.
Mir then approached Secretary to Government Cooperative Department Abdul Majid Bhat through the medium of an application on January 10, 2018 wherein directions were sought to J&K State Cooperative Bank Ltd Srinagar for grant of financial assistance (loan advance) to the tune of Rs 300 crore for the construction of the satellite township.
After hearing both the sides, Justice Sanjay Dhar observed, “allegations against the petitioners are very serious in nature and some of the offences disclosed against the petitioner carry punishment of imprisonment up to 10 years”.
“It is a settled law that at the time of consideration of bail application, it is neither necessary nor desirable to have an in-depth analysis of the material on record. Therefore, I would desist from expressing my opinion on the merits of the allegations made in the charge sheet against the petitioner lest it may prejudice his case before the trial court at the time of framing of charge or during any other proceedings”, Justice Dhar said, adding “the material on record, however, does show that there is a genuine case against the petitioner and that the prosecution will be able to produce prima facie evidence in support of the charge”.
“The petitioner cannot be released on bail at this stage. The Anti-Corruption Bureau is, however, directed to complete the investigation and file the supplementary charge sheet as early as possible, preferably within a period of one month from today. Thereafter petitioner shall be at liberty to move the trial court and if any such application is filed, the trial court is free to consider the application independently on its own merits without being influenced by dismissal of this petition”, High Court said.
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