Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 28: After being pulled up by the Division Bench of High Court, the State Government has finally forwarded the State Vigilance Organization (SVO) dossier against IAS officer Baseer Ahmad Khan to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions for necessary action. The officer, presently District Development Commissioner, Srinagar, was also involved in the much-publicized Gulmarg land scam.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that following the explicit directions of the Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar on August 28, 2012, the Vigilance dossier against Baseer Ahmad Khan, the then Deputy Commissioner Baramulla and presently District Development Commissioner, Srinagar, was examined in detail by the top brass in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat and then the file was placed before Omar Abdullah for final decision.
“Few days back, the Chief Minister conveyed approval for forwarding the dossier prepared by the State Vigilance Organization about Baseer Khan’s involvement in the Gulmarg land scam to the concerned authorities in the Union Government for appropriate action in the case”, sources said, adding “now the file has finally been forwarded to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions”.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the Division Bench of State High Court had directed the Government to forward the papers in respect of Baseer Ahmad Khan to the Union Government within a period of two weeks and file compliance report before October 1, 2012 when the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) will be taken up for further consideration.
“The case has been forwarded to the DoPT strictly in compliance to its guidelines, which state that prosecution proposals and requests should be accompanied with complete set of relied upon documents and evidences so that holistic view of the case is taken before arriving at any decision”, sources informed.
About the procedure being adopted by the DoPT in handling such dossiers and requests, sources said, “the DoPT will seek the assistance of Central Vigilance Commission, which has already constituted a committee to handle such cases”, adding “as the Supreme Court in Vineet Narain Versus Union of India case has prescribed a time limit for processing requests of sanction for prosecution, the DoPT will have to take decision on Baseer Ahmed Khan’s case within a period of three months”.
In the Gulmarg land scam, Vigilance Organization has already presented challan in the Court of Special Judge Anticorruption, Srinagar against retired IAS officer, Mehboob Iqbal and 19 other officials and private persons. Mehboob Iqbal was Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir when ownership rights of huge chunk of Government land were conferred on private persons by manipulating records.
The other accused in the scam are the then Additional Deputy Commissioner Baramulla, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Garib Singh, the then Tehsildar Tangmarg, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Shah, the then Naib Tehsildar Kunzer, Shabir Ahmad Pir, the then Naib Tehsildar Tangmarg, Azad Farooq Naikoo, the then Girdawar Tehsil Office Tangmarg, Bashir Ahmed Mir, the then Patwari Gulmarg.
The beneficiaries in the scam are Abdul Hamid Dar, resident of Chandiloora Tangmarg, Nazir Ahmad Mir, resident of Hariwatnu Tangmarg, Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, resident of Wazirbagh Srinagar, Manzoor Ahmad Khan, resident of Ummar Colony Lal Bazaar Srinagar, Mushtaq Ahmad Ganai, resident of Nishat, Mushtaq Ahmad Burza, resident of Ishber Nishat, Manzoor Ahmad Burza, resident of Ishber Nishat, Syed Musadiq Shah, resident of Nishat, Khurshid Ahmad Salmani, resident of Bal Garden Srinagar and Mohammad Afzal Khanday, resident of Nowgam Bypass. Two stamp vendors of Saddar Court Srinagar namely Ghulam Mohammad Dar, resident of Rambagh and Ahmad Shah, resident of Nowpora Srinagar are also accused in the case.
According to the Vigilance case, the accused public servants in league with each other entered into criminal conspiracy with accused beneficiaries and accordingly manipulated the records by abusing their official positions. In this way, they illegally conferred the ownership rights on 35 kanals and 6 marlas of the prime State land at Gulmarg in favour of accused beneficiaries in contravention of the provisions of the J&K State Land (Vesting of Ownership Rights to the Occupants) Act, 2001, which was otherwise not applicable in Gulmarg.
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