SVO files
challan in Gulmarg Roshni Scam
Mehboob Iqbal, Mushtaq Chaya and other high profile produced in
anti-corruption court
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
As
exclusively reported in today’s edition of Early Times, VOK today submitted
challan in ‘Gulmarg Roshni Scam’ before Special Judge Anti-corruption, Mr Mohal
Lal. SSP in SVO, Ali Mohammad Bhat, in his capacity as SHO of Police Station
VOK, submitted the challan along with an Inquiry Officer. Among the accused,
then DC of Baramulla and now DC Srinagar, Baseer Khan, was not included in
today’s challan as sanction to his prosecution has not been received yet from
Department of Personnel and Training of Government of India. Earlier this year,
Mr Khan has been inducted into IAS. He was not present in the court today. Two
stamp vendors, who are included in the challan, were also absent.
Remaining
15 accused persons, who include nine beneficiary hoteliers and six serving and
retired officials, were all present in the court when the challan in case FIR
No: 8 0f 2009 (VOK) was produced today.
Retired
Commissioner-Secretary of Irrigation and PHE, Mehboob Iqbal, who was Divisional
Commissioner of Kashmir in 2008, then Additional DC Baramulla, Farooq Ahmad
Shah, then Tehsildar Tangmarg Garib Das, then Naib Tehsildar Kunzer Gh Mohi-ud-din
Shah, then Naib Tehsildar Tangmarg Shabir Ahmad Pir, then Girdawar Tehsil
Office Tangmarg Azad Farooq Naikoo and then Patwari Gulmarg Bashir Ahmad Mir,
were all present as accused on admission of challan.
Among the
nine beneficiary hoteliers, who were present in the court, included Ab Hamid
Dar R/o Chandilora Tangmarg, Nazir Ahmad Mir R/o Hariwatnu Tangmarg, Mohammad
Ibrahim Khan R/o Wazirbagh Srinagar, Manzoor Ahmad Khan R/o Umar Colony Lal
Bazaar Srinagar, Mushtaq Ahmad Ahmad Ganai R/o Nishat, Mushtaq Ahmad Burza R/o
Ishber Nishat, Manzoor Ahmad Burza R/o Ishber Nishat, Syed Mussadiq Shah R/o
Nishat, Khurshid Ahmad Salmani R/o Bal Garden Srinagar and Mohammad Afzal
Khanday R/o Nowgam Bypass.
On the
basis of certain complaints and a report in a Jammu-based daily, VOK had
carried out preliminary verification and subsequently Filed case FIR No: 8 of
2009. It pertained to illegal allotment of nearly 35 Kanals of Tourism and Forest land at Gulmarg under the state government’s
Roshni Act. Quoting text of the Act, the newspaper report had established that
it was applicable to the government land given to the
beneficiary hoteliers with a “wrong interpretation of the law”.
“During investigation it was revealed that the accused public
servants in league with each other entered into a criminal conspiracy with
accused beneficiaries and in furtherance of criminal conspiracy with dishonest
intention and after manipulating their records and by abusing their official
position have illegally conferred the ownership rights on 35 Kanals and 6
Marlas of the prime state land at Gulmarg in favour of 9 accused beneficiaries
in contravention to the provisions of the J&K State Land (vesting of
ownership rights to the occupants) Act 2001 which was not fount applicable in
Gulmarg. Sh Mehboob Iqbal the then Divisional Commissioner was found to have
made an extra effort in getting the cases processed and holding the meeting for
conferring the benefits to the beneficiaries, under Roshni Act which during
investigation was not found applicable in Gulmarg”, SVO said in a press release
today.
It added: “The stamp vendors who have also played a vital role by
dishonestly and fraudulently providing the accused beneficiaries the stamp
paper/ attestation of the same in predate thereby showing their application
filed within the cutoff date in Tehsil office Tangmarg for seeking propriety
rights on the leased outland at Gulmarg”.
Authoritative sources told Early Times that today’s challan was
produced in compliance to the August 28 directions of a Division Bench of
J&K High Court, comprising Chief Justice Mr M M Kumar and Mr Justice Muzaffar
Hussain Attaar. Hearing a PIL filed by Sheikh Mohammad Shafi S/o former Member
of Parliament Sheikh Abdul Rehman and Prof retd S.K. Bhalla, DB had directed
SVO to file challan again accused Mehboob Iqbal and others, excluding Baseer
Khan, within 15 days. It had listed the matter for next hearing on October 1st.
While Senior Additional Advocate General Gagan Basotra had
appeared on behalf of respondent State Government and Assistant Solicitor
General of India
Delay in submitting the challan has been mainly attributed to
another petition in J&K High Court in which the beneficiary hoteliers had
argued that allotment of land in their favour was lawful and genuine. They had
prayed that FIR against them be quashed. Significantly, their argument was
supported and supplemented with a fresh opinion sought from the new Revenue
Minister, Raman Bhalla, who declared the allotment as lawful and also directed
SVO to close the FIR.
However, SVO contested the matter strenuously and Mr Justice
Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain upheld its contention that the Roshni Act was not
applicable to the government land at the world famous tourism resort of
Gulmarg. Finally the petition was dismissed and SVO proceeded with its
investigation. It established the charges and filed the challan today.
SVO has pointed out in the challan that Gulmarg Master Plan for
development into a world tourist hub was approved in a Cabinet meeting at
Chashma Shahi presided over by then Chief Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in
1975. Later, a fresh Master Plan in 2005 envisaged its further development and
subsequently land of 15,000 Kanal was transferred to Tourism Department.
It has been pointed out that none other than Mr Mehboob Iqbal was
Special Secretary Tourism when plan of Gulmarg’s development as a tourism
resort was underway. Same official later played an adverse role and favoured
allotment of land to hoteliers under Roshni Act when he was posted as
Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir.
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