The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at nine locations in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with land-grabbing and corruption linked to custodian properties of PoK evacuees. Officials, including patwaris and naib tehsildar, are under probe for illegal land transfers, forgery, and collusion with land mafias, according to the ED and ACB
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Investigation agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at nine locations in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with land-grabbing and corruption cases linked to custodian land property belonging to evacuees from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), officials said.
The Jammu unit’s ED department carried out the searches at eight locations in Jammu and one in Udhampur, ANI reported.
As per ED officials, the searches were conducted against Pranav Dev Singh and Rahul Kai (both patwaris) and Naib Tehsildar Akeel Ahmed and several others allegedly involved in the land-grabbing and corruption cases.
The probe by ED stems from a first information report (FIR) registered by the anti-corruption bureau (Central), Jammu and Kashmir Police, in 2022.
Investigative agencies suspect that there are large-scale irregularities in the transfer and illegal occupation of custodian land in the Jammu region, reported ANI.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau had also extracted one of the major land scams in the Union Territory, in which a custodian land in the Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal areas of Jammu district was found usurped by the land mafia in connivance with the officers and officials of the custodian, revenue and police departments.
The officials received information that thousands of kanals of land owned by the custodians in Asarwan, Mishriwala, and Bhalwal Jammu had been stolen by mafias and gangsters working with the police and other government officers. There are also reports that changes were made to the tax records, and land has been sold to many people.
However, the anti-corruption bureau also conducted a formal investigation and found this as a part of a criminal plot. Form-A (Form Alf) and powers of attorney (POAs) were obtained from several POK refugees by promising them more land and instant cash amounts of Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 by people working for land grabbers.
Moreover, this information was then added to and changed in the revenue records by officials in the revenue and custodian departments, abusing their positions.
These lands were then sold by the conduits and attorney holders to different individuals, including their own gang leaders and members.
ANI also reported that owing to the establishment of a prima facie nexus of the criminal elements and land grabbers and the revenue, custodian officers and officials in alienation of custodian land through fraudulent means, ACB has registered five formal FIRs in Central Jammu and Kashmir for investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and fraud.
(With inputs from ANI)
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