Charges to be framed on next date of hearing
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Feb 17: A local court here today found two former Chairmen of Jammu and Kashmir Bank and several other officials guilty in making backdoor appointments in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and shall frame charges against them on next date of hearing.
The Special Judge Anti-Corruption in an order said former Bank chairmen- Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh and Parvaiz Ahmad Nengroo- along with other bank officials have made backdoor appointments in the bank.
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The case dates back to 2019 when the ACB received a pseudonymous complaint alleging therein back door appointments of Bank Attendants and Assistant Bank Associates in the J&K Bank Ltd.
The complaint revealed that the J&K Bank had made 3000 illegal appointments since 2014 in the cadre of Bank Attendants and Assistant Bank Associates. It further said that more than 150 people, mostly PDP workers, were appointed in 2017.
The ACB accordingly registered a case (FIR No. 10/2019) against the accused and initiated the investigation.
The Court said that the ACB has produced sufficient material on record and the preliminary evidence. “There is sufficient material which furnishes ground to proceed against the accused,” the court added.
That material, court said, gives reason to the Court to hold that the accused have prima facie committed the offences punishable under section 5 (1) (d) r/w section 5 (2) of the J&K P. C. Act & section 120 B of the Ranbir Penal Code.
“Thus, this Court would find sufficient material on record which warrants the framing of charge against the accused & try them for the commission of the foresaid offences.
“This Court does not find any reason to discharge the accused or any of them at this stage. This Court shall proceed to frame the formal charge against the accused on the next date. File shall next be listed for hearing on 10/03/2026. This order shall be placed on all the files”, the court concluded.
The ACB has divulged that it has confined the investigation in the instant case FIR No. 10/2019 to the alleged illegal appointments of six Bank Attendants and Assistant Bank Associates.
Two appointees Mohd Iqbal Wani and Wasim Mehraj were appointed by Chairman Sheikh in 2013 and 2016 respectively and chairman Nengroo Hameem Nusrat as ABA in 2018; Mushtaq Ahmed Mir as ABA in 2017; Faizan Ayaz as BAT in 2017 and Anjum Ara as ABA in 2017.
As per the ACB, they have found that the two Chairmen have adopted identical modus operandi in appointing the said appointees, that they have accommodated their respective favourites including relatives in identical fashion; that they have, during their relevant times, in conspiracy and in league with the other Bank officials and officers, created unprecedented and illegal practice of clandestinely absorbing un-deserving candidates, that they have thus deprived the more competent and desirous aspirants of the employment opportunities, that they did not induce fair competition, did not identify the posts to ascertain the vacancies and did not put the posts to advertisement and that they did not follow the norms and rules relating to the appointments.
The ACB has alleged that Syed Irfan (Associate Executive HRDD), had initiated the process of appointment of the beneficiary on the verbal instruction/s of the then Chairman, that Yehya Rafiqui (Executive HRDD), Mohd Maqbool Lone (Vice President HRDD) and Abdul Rouf Bhat (President HRDD) had, in furtherance of the conspiracy so hatched, further processed the file of the beneficiary and forwarded it to the then Chairman to obtain his approval, that the then Chairman, being privy to the conspiracy, accorded approval to the appointment of the beneficiary & that the said accused have thus wilfully and intentionally ignored the conditions prescribed in the J&K Bank Officers Service Manual, 2000.
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