Roshni land scam: SVC seeks personal appearance of IO

Srinagar:  The State Vigilance Commission (SVC) Wednesday sought personal appearance of the Investigating Officer (IO) in connection with a  multi-crore land scam in Jammu under the Roshni scheme.
The SVC also directed the IO to produce case diary of the case and also file the Status Report indicating the progress achieved so far.
Advocate Shiekh Shakil Ahmed appearing for the complainant Prof S.K.Bhalla submitted that given the influence of the accused involved in the case, there was every likelihood of the investigation being derailed and therefore in order to instill people’s confidence in the investigation, the same is required to be supervised by the SVC which is the highest anti-graft body in the state.
Earlier this month, the State Vigilance Organisation(SVO) booked a liquor baron and several IAS officers in connection with a land scam.
A case had been registered against Bansi Lal Gupta and some (IAS) officers of Revenue Department in connection with registration of prime land of Jammu Development Authority (JDA) in Roshni land scam.
The businessman and the officials were booked after conclusion of preliminary investigation on a complaint against Gupta and senior IAS officers, then posted in Jammu, for conferring ownership rights in respect of land measuring Over 5 at posh Deeli belt of Jammu.
In the preliminary investigation, it was found that ownership rights of a plot of land belonging to JDA was done without any khasra gridwari (Revenue extraction) to the said land and as per Roshni Act.
J&K government had transferred over 19 acres of to JDA in 2004 and there was an entry in the name of JDA in ownership column, but the Patwari deliberately ignored the revenue extraction of the land to benefit Gupta as land belonged to JDA, which does not come under the preview of the Roshni scheme, he said.
Despite all this, the then District Development Commissioner granted ownership rights to him in 2001 and the then Divisional Commissioner fixed the price of the said land as chairman of committee for Roshni, he added.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.