Jammu, 13 August (H.S.): The Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has unearthed another major land scam involving the illegal grabbing of Custodian land in Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal areas of Jammu district.

An ACB official said the scam allegedly involves revenue officers, land grabbers, conduits and beneficiaries, including Form Alaf holders.

According to him, thousands of kanals of Custodian land were fraudulently occupied with the help of tampered revenue records and later sold to various buyers.

He said a verification by the ACB revealed that over 600 kanals had earlier been illegally allotted to displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) through fraudulent means.

In those cases, 16 FIRs had already been registered and investigation was underway.

He said a fresh verification has now found that kith and kin of already-allotted displaced families, despite being ineligible, managed to get additional land mutated in their favour without any genuine Government or Provincial Rehabilitation Officer orders.

“Many of these orders were found to be fake,” he said.

According to him, the land was then sold directly or through attorneys to other parties, causing huge losses to the government.

“With evidence of a nexus between land grabbers, Form Alaf holders and revenue officials in the fraudulent alienation of about 150 kanals of Custodian land, ACB has registered eight more FIRs at Police Station ACB Central,” he said.

The ACB official said the cases have been filed under the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act along with charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and fraud against several revenue officials and beneficiaries, including Suresh Sharma, then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Barn, Tehsil Bhalwal; Mohit Gupta, then Tehsildar Bhalwal; Kuldeep Singh of Bakshi Nagar, Jammu; Anjali Slathia of Akhnoor, Navjot Singh, then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Barn, Tehsil Bhalwal; Farooq Khan, then Tehsildar Bhalwal; Faryad Ahmad, then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Kot, tehsil Jammu; Narain Singh (now deceased), then Tehsildar Jammu; Deedar Singh of Batala, tehsil Bhimber, at present Chatha Farm, Jammu; Omkar Singh of Lower Muthi, Jammu; Bashir Ahmad, then Patwari, Patwar Halqa, Raipur Domana; Mohammad Aslam, then Girdawar Circle Misriwala; Avtar Singh, then Tehsildar Jammu; Shabir Ahmed, then Patwari Kot; Iqbal Zargar, Girdawar Circle Bhalwal, Guldarshan Singh, then Naib Tehsildar Bhalwal (now deceased); Kamal Kohli of Hardo Muthi, Rajbagh, Kathua; Shakeel Ahmad, then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Bhalwal; Aqeel Ahmad, then Naib Tehsildar Bhalwal; Jaspal Singh of Village Choura, District Gurdaspur, Punjab at present Rajbagh, Kathua; Rashpal Singh, then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Bhalwal; Hans Raj, then Girdawar Circle Bhalwal; Farooq Khan, then Tehsildar Bhalwal; Mangat Singh of near Janta Flour Mill Gangyal; Kulwant Singh of Suhawada, Darap, Sehora, tehsil Bishnah, district Jammu, and Sham Singh, then Naib Tehsildar Bhalwal, and others.

The investigation is ongoing and further action is expected as more details emerge, added the ACB official.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar