Gehlot, others arraigned as accused
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 25: The Anti Corruption Court has dismissed the petitions filed by Chairman and MD Ambience Group of Companies seeking release of passport seized by Anti-Corruption Bureau Jammu during the house and office search of the petitioner in July 2019.
After hearing Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir from Supreme Court for the petitioner and Wajahat Jameel, Special Public Prosecutor for the Anti-Corruption Bureau Srinagar, Surinder Singh, the Additional Special Judge Anti-Corruption Srinagar observed, “perusal of the challan file would show that Raj Singh Gehlot and others have been arraigned as accused in the charge-sheet arising out of case FIR No. 15/2019 under Sections 409, 420, 120-B RPC and Section 5(1) (C) & 5(1)(d) read with Section 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act”.
“The case got stayed by the High Court of J&K and Ladakh on the plea filed by Raj Singh Gehlot. It further transpires from the record file that further investigation in the case is being conducted by CBI pursuant to the order of Govt of J&K vide No. GAD-VIGOSP/2/2021 dated 23.06.2021. Accordingly, and pursuant to the Government order for transferring the further investigation of the case to CBI, the then Investigating Officer, Kamal Sangra, Inspector of ACB (Central) Jammu handed over the record including the passport of accused/applicant in terms of seizure memo dated 26.07.2019 to Sanjay Malhotra, Inspector CBI, BS&FB New Delhi”, the court said.
“The passports of the applicants seized by the police stated to be lying with the IO conducting the further investigation in the case. The authority quoted by the counsel for the applicants do not securely fitted to the facts of the instant case”, the court said, adding “the other found not relevant to the issue involved in the matter”.
With these observations, the court dismissed the application. “This court is dehors of competence to adjudicate upon the application seeking release of passports in their favour once proceedings in the main case have been stayed by the High Court”, the Additional Special Judge said.
It is pertinent to mention here that Anti-Corruption Bureau had registered FIR against Raj Singh Gehlot, J&K Bank officials and others for mis-utilising Rs 289.28 crore loan obtained from J&K Bank from the year 2009 to 2014 for the construction of 5 Star Hotel at Shahdara, Delhi.
ACB (Central) had filed a part charge sheet in the Anti-Corruption Court Srinagar on March 2021 and later, by the order of J&K Govt, the investigation was transferred to CBI for further investigation as the borrower had also obtained loan from different nationalised banks under consortium arrangement in which J&K Bank played the lead role despite lesser exposure.
It is pertinent to mention here that after the abrogation of Article 370, Anti-Corruption Bureau J&K had registered a number of FIRs in big corporate loans by J&K Bank and other State owned banks. Reportedly, Anti-Corruption Bureau has been given free hand by the LG Administration to choose his team so that the bank related cases in particular could be investigated and supervised by professional officers.
For the first time, an officer of the rank of SSP, S Balasubramony was posted in Anti-Corruption Bureau J&K on deputation from CBI Head Office who supervised all bank related cases including Aman Hospitality (P) Ltd. This case was investigated by Kamal Sangra, Inspector ACB Jammu.
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