Land Mafia Busted in Jammu! 28 Acres Claimed Back, 5 FIRs Registered
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has achieved exposed a major land scam, wherein 28 acres of land allotted to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) refugees in Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal areas of Jammu has been found usurped by the land mafia in connivance with the officials of different departments.
Officials of Custodian, Revenue and police departments have been found to be involved in the scam. Five FIRs have been registered against the suspects, including government officials, and raids are underway at the premises of 16 people involved in the scam, Deputy Inspector General of ACB, Jammu, Vikas Gupta told reporters here. Eight to 10 serving and retired revenue officials, including tehsildars, naib-tehsildars and patwaris, have been named so far in the FIRs.
An official of the ACB said inputs were received that custodian land measuring thousands of kanals at Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal was fraudulently grabbed by land mafia in connivance with Revenue and police officials. The revenue records have been tempered and land has been sold to various persons.
“The ACB conducted a formal verification, wherein it was found that in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, power of attorneys (POAs) were obtained from various PoJK refugees, alluring them of additional lands and providing them instant money ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 by the conduits of land grabbers, and thereafter insertions regarding additional chunks of custodian lands were made in the revenue records by the officials, by sheer abuse of their official positions, and these lands were sold by the conduits and attorney holders to various persons, including their own gang leaders and members, by resorting to fraudulent means, thereby causing a huge loss to the government” an official statement read.
Owing to the establishment of, prima facie, nexus of the criminal elements and the Revenue/Custodian officials in alienation of land through fraudulent means, the ACB has registered five formal FIRs for investigation under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and fraud, the statement added.
During the course of investigation, after obtaining the search warrants from the Special Judge Anti-Corruption Jammu, search teams comprising ACB officials, independent witnesses and magistrates were dispatched to 16 locations throughout Jammu and its adjoining areas.
