JAMMU, Nov 8: The Anti-Corruption Bureau has uncovered a multi-crore land scam in Jammu district, filing cases against several revenue officials, land grabbers and their associates, an official said on Friday.
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The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) spokesperson said this recent success exposes a network involving revenue officers and a land mafia involved in the scam of around 40 kanals of custodian land in Asarwan area, which was illegally seized by the land mafia.
Previously, the ACB had uncovered another scam involving more than 62 acres of custodian land, with 15 FIRs already filed for investigation.
The spokesman said that hundreds of kanals of custodian land in Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal in Jammu were fraudulently taken by the land grabbers and criminals with the cooperation of some revenue and police officials.
In many cases, the records were tampered with and the land was sold to different people, he added.
During verification, the ACB found that as part of a criminal conspiracy, Form 3-A (Form Alf) and power of attorney (POA) documents were obtained from the refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. They were falsely promised additional land or offered quick money by middlemen linked to land grabbers, he said.
The revenue officials then altered records to show extra plots of custodian land in the names of these individuals. These lands were later sold to various buyers, including gang leaders, causing substantial losses to the government, he added.
Due to clear evidence of a connection between the land grabbers and the revenue officials in illegally transferring custodian land, the ACB has registered cases against Pranav Dev Singh (Patwari), Rahul Kai (Patwari), Aqeel Ahmed (Naib Tehsildar), Rajinder Sharma of Flora Nagbani Marh, Varinder Gupta, Jagdish Chander and Maqbool Choudhary along with other officials from the Revenue and Custodian departments, he added.
During the investigation, the search teams, including the ACB officers, independent witnesses and magistrates, conducted raids at six locations in Jammu and surrounding areas after obtaining search warrants from the Special Judge Anti-Corruption in Jammu.
So far, around 16 FIRs have been filed as part of the ongoing investigation, while verification continues to uncover additional custodian land fraudulently taken with the involvement of the officials from the Revenue, Police, and Custodian departments.
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