Jammu and Kashmir’s highest anti-corruption body has booked three former revenue officers and one serving one for allegedly “entering into a conspiracy with three civilians” – including National Conference’s current Budhal MLA Choudhary Javed Iqbal – to “usurp” a piece of land meant for a refugee in Jammu’s Chawadi area.
According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s First Information Report (FIR) registered on May 20, Ravinder Sharma, the then Tehsildar (Settlement) , Mohammad Bashir, the then Tehsildar (Bahu), Jammu, Mohammad Sarwar Lone, the then Naib Tehsildar (Bahu), Jammu, and Mohd Rasheed Malik, the then Patwari Chowadhi, Jammu, have been booked under sections of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Svt 2006, and the Ranbir Penal Code for having illegally attesting the change in ownership of a piece of land in Chawadi area in 2014.
Of the alleged accused, the tehsildars and the naib tehsildar are now retired. Significantly, the FIR mentions J&K lawmaker Javed Iqbal, son of Aslam Din of Madina Hills, Narwal Bhatindi, as the holder of the power of attorney pertaining to the land. Iqbal, however, has not been named as an accused in the case and he was not in politics at that time.
Also named in the FIR is Tara Singh, the allottee of the land and a man displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947.
In its FIR, the ACB said that the land in question measuring 30 kanals (equivalent to 3.75 acres), was allotted to Singh in 2013 according to Government Order No. 254/C, which provided for allotment of state land to displaced persons from PoK. According to Cabinet Order No. 578-C of 1954, allottees of such land will have to personally begin cultivating them within six months of their allocation, failing which he will forfeit his right to hold the land.
According to the ACB, Singh never had possession of the land, and that instead, revenue records had one Nazir Ahmad, son of Alam Deen, recorded as the gair marusi — or the tenant without any occupancy rights — of the land. Additionally, the Khasra Girdawari, or the annual revenue record denoting possession, was also shown in Ahmed’s name, the FIR says.
In view of the entities in the revenue records, the land in question was neither in the possession of the allottee Tara Singh, nor there was any Khasra Girdawari entered in revenue records in his name, but the revenue officials named as accused in the FIR entered into a conspiracy with the beneficiaries and attested mutation in favour of Tara Singh in 2014, the FIR said.
However, a power of attorney pertaining to that land had been executed in Javed Iqbal’s name “well before the conferment of ownership rights in favour of Tara Singh”.
This attesting of mutation in favour of Tara Singh, according to the FIR, was in violation of the Cabinet Order No. 578-C of 1954. However, the revenue officials named as accused in the FIR entered into a conspiracy with the beneficiaries and attested mutation in favour of Tara Singh in 2014.
“The entire episode serves as evidence that for pecuniary gain, the then Tehsildar Settlement, Jammu, along with the revenue officers/officials of Tehsil Bahu, Jammu, beneficiary Tara Singh, Nazir Ahmad, and attorney holder Javid Iqbal, conspired together in a well-orchestrated manner to illegally obtain state land. They subsequently sold the land worth crores causing significant loss of the state exchequer,” the FIR said.
When contacted, a senior officer of the ACB, investigations are ongoing and that “inclusion of any person as accused depends on their outcome”.
On his part, Iqbal denied he had anything to do with the land and claimed that “The matter was investigated by government agencies earlier as well, and I was given a clean chit”.
