Raids Carried At Residence Of Officers, Agents
Srinagar: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Tuesday uncovered a fake driving license racket and filed a case against the ARTO officials in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district for allegedly allowing touts and agents to prepare driving licences and other documents in lieu of “bribe”.
According to a statement issued by the anti-graft body, a joint surprise check was conducted by the ACB sleuths to look into allegations that many touts and agents were operating in ARTO Office Anantnag in league with the officials for preparation of registration and fitness certificates for heavy commercial vehicles, issuing driving licenses in lieu of bribe.
“During the surprise check conducted on the driving trial test day, the ACB said, it was found that most of application forms for issuance of driving licenses were having pencil written codes found to be abbreviations of names of some touts and agents operating in league with the board members of ARTO Office Anantnag,” the ACB spokesperson said.
Moreover, he said, some applicants who appeared for driving test revealed that they had paid bribe for issuance of driving licenses through agents and touts for board members of ARTO Office.
“It was found that the officer/officials of ARTO office Anantnag, for their ulterior motives were conducting both driving test trials and fitness test of vehicle in hasty manner just to accommodate the applicants recommend by touts/agents,” the ACB spokesperson said.
“In addition, social, networking chats have been found amongst the touts and ARTO officials wherein candidate application numbers alongwith the name of touts have been forwarded to the officials for issuance of certificate/licenses,” he added.
Accordingly, the ACB spokesperson said that a case FIR no. 4/2021 was registered at the ACB Police Station Anantnag against the accused.
He further said that during investigation, search warrants were obtained from the Anti corruption court Anantnag and searches conducted at the residences of ARTO Shabir Ahmad in Qazigund, Motor Vehicle Inspectors Shahid Mehboob at D.K. Marg Kulgam, Manzoor Ahmad at Bemina and Asif Amin at Sanat Nagar, Srinagar.
“Moreover, the residential houses/ shops of touts/ agents including Khalid Hakim at Qazibagh Anantnag,. Mubarak Bhat at Laisoo Gudder Kulgam, Zahoor Ahmad at Sarnal Anantnag, Aijaz Wagey at Khanbal Anantnag, Nadeem Ahmad alias Nadeem Photostat at Anantnag, Farooq Mir- Nazrana Photosat near DC office Anantnag were searched, the ACB. “During searches various incriminating documents were seized,” the Bureau spokesperson said.
He added that further investigation of the case was going on.
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