Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 10: In the much publicized multi-crore Hill Kaka relief scam, Additional Sessions Judge Anticorruption Jammu, Jaffer Hussain Beigh today framed charges against the then Assistant Commissioner, Choudhary Mohd Hafiz and 12 others.
The other accused persons are Maqbool Ahmed and Sohan Singh, the then Junior Assistants in the Deputy Commissioner Poonch office, Ghulam Rasool, the then Tehsildar Surankote, Abdul Razaq, the then Rehbar-e-Taleem teacher, Mohd Ayub, the then Patwari, Mohd Azam, the then Stock Assistant in the Animal Husbandry Department, Poonch, Ghulam Hussain, the then Junior Assistant in the Deputy Commissioner office, Abdul Rehman, the then Senior Examiner Fund Office Poonch, Ghulam Abas, the then Constable in Police Department, Sadar Din and private persons namely Mohd Aslam and Mohd Razaq.
However, the Court discharged five private persons namely Liaqat Ali, Wazir Mohd, Ghulab Din, Abdul Aziz and Aziza as there was no evidence against them. Senior Prosecuting Officer Himanshu Gupta appeared for the Vigilance Organization in the Court.
According to the Vigilance case, information was received from reliable source that large scale misappropriation of public money was caused in the distribution of relief meant for families affected due to operation “Sarpvinash” carried out by the security forces in Hill Kaka area of Poonch during the year 2005.
A case in this regard was registered on October 21, 2005 and during the course of investigation it came to fore that in order to provide relief to the people affected due to the operation the Union Government released an amount of Rs 7.40 crore which was placed at the disposal of the then Deputy Commissioner Poonch Ramzan Thakur, who got the entire amount credited in the official bank account of Assistant Commissioner Development.
Accordingly, the ACD Poonch Choudhary Mohd Hafiz was directed to disburse the relief amount among the beneficiaries and the list of affected families entitled for compensation was prepared by the concerned Tehsildar on the basis of seasonal permits issued to the migratory families during the year 2001 and 2002.
Some of the beneficiaries of village Sanai and Smote were examined during investigation and they stated that their photographs were collected by Ghulam Rasool, the then Tehsildar Surankote and they were made to sign some withdrawal slips of JCC Bank Surankote but no relief money was paid to them.
It was also alleged that Ghulam Rasool, the then Tehsildar Surankote and Mohd Ayub, the then Patwari deceitfully opened 13 bank accounts in the name of different beneficiaries and subsequently withdrew money from these accounts through cheques. During investigation, it was found that the accused public servants abused their official position and dishonestly and fraudulently showed disbursement of relief in favour of 283 beneficiaries while as only 34 beneficiaries were found genuinely paid in accordance with their actual entitlement.
Twenty six beneficiaries were paid relief much in excess of their entitlement, six beneficiaries were paid twice and 217 beneficiaries were found not eligible to the Hill-Kaka relief. In this manner, the accused public servants caused a loss of Rs 2,46,68057 to the State exchequer.
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