*HC grants time till June 10 for furnishing of complete record
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 30: Finally, the heads have started rolling in the infamous multi-crore Roshni Scam with the State Vigilance Organization registering four FIRs-one each in Jammu, Udhampur, Srinagar and Pulwama districts against the illegal beneficiaries and officers/officials of the Revenue Department. Among the accused booked by the Vigilance under Prevention of Corruption Act is IAS officer Hirdesh Kumar Singh, the then District Collector Jammu, who is presently on deputation to Centre.
Meanwhile, State High Court has expressed displeasure over the Deputy Commissioners of six districts-Jammu, Udhampur, Samba, Srinagar, Pulwama and Budgam not strictly complying with the directions regarding furnishing of complete record about the Roshni Scheme to the Special Investigation Teams (SITs) of the State Vigilance Organization. The High Court has given one more opportunity to the heads of these districts for strict adherence to the directives by or before June 10, 2014.
These four FIRs registered under Sections 5(1)(d)5(2) Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption Act read with Section 17 of J&K State Land (Vesting of Ownership to Occupants) Act, 2001 and Section 120-B RPC are based on the outcome of the verification conducted by the Special Investigation Teams of the State Vigilance Organization into the randomly picked up cases.
The outcome of the verifications was exclusively reported by EXCELSIOR in its editions dated May 28 and 30 respectively mentioning how the scheme was abused by the officials of the Revenue Department in order to confer undue benefits upon occupants of the State land.
According to the FIR No.15 registered at Police Station Vigilance Organization Jammu, out of 63 kanals and 15 marlas land in village Katal Batal, which was vested to Bashir Ahmed, son of Hoshar Din, about 34 kanals and 4 marlas was non-cultivable and doesn’t fall under Agricultural Category. However, the ownership rights were vested to the beneficiary under this category in blatant violation of the provisions of the Roshni Act.
In this case, FIR has been registered against IAS officer Hirdesh Kumar, the then District Collector Jammu (presently on deputation to Centre) and other officers/officials of Revenue Department, Jammu and the beneficiary. The names of the other official accused, who facilitated this illegal act, would be included in the FIR following further investigation into this case.
Similarly, in case FIR No.16, it has been alleged that benefits under Roshni Act were illegally conferred upon those persons, who otherwise are not even the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The accused are Chanchal Dass, son of Basti Ram, Jyoti Parkash, son of Mast Ram and Shadi Ram, son of Chandu, all the inhabitants of village Sutain, Udhampur and officers/officials of Revenue Department, Udhampur.
As reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR on May 28, these beneficiaries are originally from District Jodhpur of Rajasthan and do not possess the Permanent Resident Certificates of J&K. But, the approval committee cleared their cases for grant of ownership rights without verifying whether they are bonafide citizens of the State.
“The FIR of Srinagar district pertains to undervaluation of the land”, top Vigilance sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “the valuation of land of some of the beneficiaries has been found to be fixed at Rs 48 lakh or Rs 40 lakh per kanal despite the recommendation of Rs 70 lakh and Rs 65 lakh per kanal by Tehsildar Territorial/Tehsildar Nazool Srinagar”.
About the FIR relating to Pulwama case, sources said, “four kanals and four marlas of land, which was brought under the vesting of ownership rights, was actually recorded as Ghair Mumkin Nallah in the revenue records”, adding “in this way the officers/officials of the Revenue Department violated the provisions of the Roshni Act in order to confer undue benefit upon some persons”.
In response to a question, sources said, “the names of officers/officials, who facilitated these illegal acts would be included in the FIRs following in-depth probe, which has already been initiated”, adding “from the outcome of investigation into randomly picked up cases the intentions behind inordinate delay in submission of complete records can easily be gauged”.
Meanwhile, Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Mohd Yaqoob Mir and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur today expressed displeasure over inordinate delay on the part of Deputy Commissioners of six districts to furnish complete record to the Special Investigation Teams of Vigilance.
When the much publicized Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking CBI probe into Roshni Scam came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, counsel for the petitioner, drew the attention of the Division Bench towards the order dated April 24, 2014 whereby Deputy Commissioners of six districts were directed to furnish the requisite record to the Vigilance Organization within a period of two weeks.
“Despite lapse of four weeks there is no compliance of this order. Except Deputy Commissioner Jammu, who has ensured partial compliance of the order, no other Deputy Commissioner has come forward with the compliance report”, he said, adding “the concluding paragraph of status report filed by Director Vigilance, Sheikh Owais Ahmed substantiates this”.
Upon this, Division Bench expressed displeasure over the conduct of the Deputy Commissioners and in the open court directed all the concerned authorities including the DCs to ensure compliance of the order dated April 24 by or before June 10, when the PIL will again be taken up for hearing and passing further necessary orders.
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