Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 15: Days after booking Varinder Singh- the bodyguard of the fugitive pro-Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh, intelligence agencies are going to reopen the fake gun license scam of Jammu and Kashmir
Varinder Singh was booked under the Arms Act in connection with a gun license issued to him in the Kishtwar district on forged documents.
Sources said that nearly 4 lakh gun licenses were issued from different districts of J&K and many senior officers are already underscanner for issuing these licenses in lieu of money.
Sources said that investigating agencies are now probing the role of some former district magistrates who had allegedly issued back-dated licenses after being transferred from respective districts.
“Roles of some former district magistrates, who are now serving in different departments, are under scanner because during investigation it was established that some officers issued back-dated licenses in lieu of taking huge amount from dealers”, a source said, adding, “investigating agencies are likely to quiz some gun-dealers who used to manage licenses for some individuals”.
In the year 2017, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in its report has revealed that during the last 15 years various district magistrates (DMs), served in different districts of J&K, had issued 3, 69,191 gun licenses
Even as CBI has arrested two former district magistrates, some IAS officers and over a dozen gun dealers are under scanner in connection with the ‘scam’ related to the issuance of fake arms licenses in J&K.
“Investigating agency is probing role of some IAS officers and gun dealers in the scam”, a source said, adding, “One senior IAS officer had issued gun licenses from the back date after the same officer was transferred as a district magistrate from a district of Kashmir Valley”.
Important to mention here that in 2020 CBI had arrested two former district magistrates of Kupwara North Kashmir in connection with issuance of large number of arms licences on the basis of forged documents.
During the CBI investigation, the alleged role of these officers who had held the position of a district magistrate of Kupwara from 2015 to 2016 and 2013 to 2015, respectively, had surfaced, officials said.
Earlier in 2019, CBI had conducted searches across several locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Gurgaon, and Noida, in connection with a huge fake licence-issuing racket case. |
