Srinagar: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday carried out raids at residences of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials in Srinagar about illegal construction of shopping Plaza at Kursoo Rajbagh.
The anti-graft body said that they raided houses of four top officials of SMC and incriminating material, documents were recovered during the searches.
“The searches were conducted in residential houses of accused persons—Mehrajuddin Buja, Ward Officer, at Bemina, Nisar Ahmad Rah, Building Inspector, at Nawab Bazar, Bashir Ahmad Shah, Enforcement Officer at Peer Bagh and Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Building Inspector at Dooru Anantnag,” it said.
The statement said that a joint surprise check was conducted by ACB Police Station Srinagar to probe into the allegations of illegal construction of Abdullah Shopping Plaza at Kursoo Rajbagh, Srinagar.
“During the check, it was surfaced that vide No. 2926 of 2018 dated 05-08-2018 building permission was issued by SMC in favour of Mohammad Abdullah Dar son of Abdul Kabir Dar of Rajbagh for extension of already existing three-story house after dismantling the existing single story shops adjacent to the house for a plinth area of 560 Sft. and remitted height of 36 ft,” it said.
“Dar in its utter violation, constructed a four storied commercial complex after dismantling the single storey shops,” the statement added.
He constructed a structure separate from the existing residential house, it said. “The concerned SMC officials who were duty-bound to check and report the construction which was illegal from its very onset did not stop the construction nor took any action under legal provision,” it added.
“The SMC official instead provided ample opportunity to the beneficiary for completion of four-storeyed commercial structure and intentionally delayed issuance of demolition notice which was served only after completion of structure i.e. after a gap of 14 months from commencement of illegal construction,” the ACB said.
Accordingly, the ACB said a case (FIR N0.11/2020 U/S 5 (1) (d), r/w 5(2) of PC Act-2006 Svt. and 120 RPC) was registered against the officers/officials of SMC on August 27 and in compliance to a court order dated 29-08-2020.

NAZIMA SIDIQ