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| SVO hushes up matter of fraud against Hurriyat leader, Minister | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Oct 19: State Vigilance Organisation has hushed up a matter of fraud and forgery registered against a prominent Hurriyat leader and a National Conference MLA who was later inducted as a Minister in his Cabinet by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in 2009. The Hurriyat leader and the MLA, who has been relieved as Minister earlier this year, had fraudulently drawn an amount of Rs 24 Lakh as "compensation" for land in Rakhi Aarth in collusion with some officials of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority [LAWDA] in the year 2007.
Sources in the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) disclosed to Early Times that the Hurriyat leader and several others, including the NC MLA, had been booked by name in case FIR No: 18 of 2009, registered with Vigilance Organisation Kashmir, under sections 5(2) Prevention of Corruption Act, 120-B Ranbir Penal Code (conspiracy of causing loss to the State exchequer) besides sections 467, 468, 471 of RPC. The case had been registered after some officials pointed out that the two separatist and the mainstream politicians had swindled an amount of Rs 21.60 Lakh by forgery and fraudulent means.
The Investigating Officer, acting under then SSP Nisar Ahmad, established that the accused had only six Kanals of the Rakh land under their possession and use when the Government decided to take over the marshy land for the purpose of developing a colony of 7,000 plots for the people being displaced due to conservation and development of Dal Lake. However, the accused in collusion with some Revenue and LAWDA officials made criminal insertions in the records and thus showed sixty Kanals of land under their possession and use in Rakh Aarth.
The Investigating Officer observed during investigation that in Khasra No: 1692, sixty Kanals of land had been fraudulently shown in possession of the accused instead of only six Kanals. Since the records were in Urdu, only a dot had been inserted to convert six into sixty.
The Collector Land Acquisition of LAWDA fraudulently issued cheque No: 20201201 dated 1-12-2007, to the order of Rs 23,95,638-00 in the name of the Hurriyat leader who deposited the same in his account with State Bank of India and subsequently shared the booty with the MLA and other partners. All the charges, including that of the excess payment of Rs 21.60 Lakh, were established during investigation and the accused had no convincing answers to the VOK questionnaire.
Sources revealed that when the Government decided to pay an amount of Rs 40,000 per Kanal as "relief" to the displaced Kamas (tillers) of the State land at Rakh Aarth under Govt Order No: 56(S) of 2005 Dated 12-04-2005, the Hurriyat leader roped in some Revenue and LAWDA officials and managed to convert "six" into "sixty".
When the case was being prepared for challan and sanction to the prosecution of the MLA, men from top corridors of power exerted influence over the VOK, asking them to go slow and finally hush up the otherwise proven fraud. Around the same time, the MLA had been inducted as a Cabinet Minister. "Though the matter is still alive, there is no progress in the prosecution and challan as nobody in the newly formed State Vigilance Commission is interested in pursuing this case", said a well-placed SVO source. |
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