By M Ahmad
Srinagar- A CBI court here has framed charges against three IAS officers and as many other accused persons including a beneficiary in the much publicised Roshni land scam.
Those who have to face trial include IAS officers Basharat Ahmad Dhar, Mehboob Iqbal and Ejaz Iqbal besides the other accused, Mushtaq Ahmad Malik, Akram Khan and Sajad Parvez.
The charges were framed by Special Judge CBI Srinagar, SC Katal in a case (FIR No 26/2015) which was initially registered by the Vigilance Organization Kashmir, now Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Kashmir.
Subsequently, the case was transferred to CBI for investigation on the directions of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh in a Public Interest Litigation filed in Jammu.
Accordingly, CBI registered the case on 20 November 2020 for offences under penal code’s Sections 120-B (criminal Conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and Section 5(1)(d) read with 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to CBI, in 2007 ownership rights of State land measuring 7 kanals and 7 marlas in Nursingh Garh site Shaheed Gunj were vested in favour of Sajjad Parvaiz (alleged beneficiary) at the rate of Rs 45 lakh per kanal by empowerment committee in its meeting held on 28 April 2007.
The “beneficiary” Parvez was not legal occupant in terms of Section 2(e) of State Land (Vesting of Ownership Rights to the Occupants) Act (Roshni Act) as he was only authorized agent of lessee, Ashok Sharma and Bipin Sharma by virtue of special power of attorney, as per the CBI.
“The evidence assembled by the investigation agency on its face value reveals that the accused officers in league with accused beneficiary abused their official position and bestowed undue benefit by vesting ownership rights of prime State land”, the court said, after hearing the parties.
At this stage, the court said, it cannot be said that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused persons and discharge is the only remedy.
“Hence, the prima facie case is made out for framing the charge under Section 120-B/RPC read with Section 5(1)(d)/5(2) of J&K PC Act against six accused and they have been charge-sheeted accordingly”, the court said. However it dropped the offence under Section 420, underlining that the same is not made out. The court has put up the case on August 5 for reading over charge to the accused persons.
The Jammu and Kashmir state lands (vesting of ownership to the occupants) act was enacted in the year 2001 with the twin objective of generating resources for financing power projects and conferment of proprietary rights to the occupants of the state land.
The act popularly called as Roshni scheme initially envisaged conferment of proprietary rights of around 20.55 lakh Kanals (102750 hectares) to the occupants of which only 15.85 per cent land was approved for vesting of ownership rights.
The scheme was finally repealed by the then governor Satya Pal Malik on November 28, 2018.
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