Major Revenue Scam in South Jammu
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Rs 26.63 lakh cash, original Jamabandis, Roznamcha Registers, Lathas, Mussavis and trace maps especially of revenue villages Sunjwan and Chowadhi have been seized during simultaneous raids at 21 locations in Jammu and Samba districts on Sunday.
Raids were conducted at the houses and offices of three serving Revenue officials including a Naib Tehsildar, a teacher and a Probationer Sub Inspector (PSI), 5 retired employees and 8 private persons including property dealers. Most of these accused are already facing FIRs in various wings of J&K Police.
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Houses, offices of Naib Tehsildar, Teacher, PSI, 5 retired revenue officials and 8 property dealers raided; staff of Tehsildar Bahu detained
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Retired Tehsildar, two Girdawars; a property dealer arrested
Staff of Tehsildar Bahu has been detained while four persons have been arrested. They include Sadiq Poswal, property dealer Mohd Bashir, retired Tehsildar, Dharam Pal and Ghulam Rasool, both retired Girdawars.
Arrest of few more retired revenue officials and property dealers is likely to be made shortly. Scrutiny of the seized documents is going on minutely and further arrests are likely in next few days. All of these accused were on the radar of the authorities since long.
Following the suspicious disappearances of Jamabandis, Lathas and other land records in Jammu South, 21 joint police-revenue teams on Sunday raided houses and offices of many land grabbers, property leaders and revenue officials in Sunjwan, Chowadhi, Greater Kailash, Sanjay Nagar, Janipur, Gujjar Nagar, Bahu, Sidhra, Trikuta Nagar Extension and Satwari areas in Jammu and Sarore in Samba District.
The persons raided upon were allegedly involved in murky land deals, forgery, destruction of revenue records, land grabbing, encroachments over state land; etc, based on the inputs received from various sources.
The raids followed the investigation in FIR 182/2021 registered on November 7, 2021 at Police Station Channi Himmat regarding missing of revenue records viz. Lathas, Masavis of village Chowadi and Sunjwan of Tehsil Bahu.
The raids carried out in the wee hours were continuing at few places till the last reports arrived.
Further, the searches were held as per the laid down procedures consisting of 21 separate teams and comprising of Executive Magistrates, Police Officers and other officials including lady constables and independent witnesses. The areas were segregated into sectors, supervised by senior police and Revenue officers.
Revenue records in various forms and in huge quantum have been recovered during searches including various incriminating documents, papers pertaining to land deals, bank locker keys etc the contents of which will be verified in due course of investigation.
Unaccounted cash amounting to Rs. 26.63 lakh has also been seized during searches. The agencies are also looking into the aspects of money laundering, dis-proportionate assets, invoking of provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, PMLA Act, etc. Many persons raided today already have FIRs, cases registered against them in past under various penal sections.
It pertinent to mention that the seized documents includes original Jamabandis, Roznamcha Registers, Lathas, Mussavis and trace maps especially of revenue villages Sunjwan and Chowadhi. Arrests of few retired revenue officials and Property dealers have also been made. Scrutiny of the seized documents is going on minutely and further arrests are likely.
The Government is committed in its resolve to eradicate all kind of corruption from the Revenue Department. Simultaneous-ly, the revenue functioning is also being made more transparent and accountable with various people-friendly initiatives like issuance of land passbooks in three languages, Aapki Zameen Aapki Nigrani Program, SVAMITVA Scheme for rural Abadi Deh lands survey, digitisation of Jamabandies/ Girdawari Registers/ RoR and issuance of online fards in a phased manner, together with making various revenue related services online.