JK govt revokes ban on issuing gun licenses with immediate effect

The home department of the LG administration on Thursday issued orders to trash the restriction imposed on the District Magistrates in the UT of J&K for issuing fresh individual arms licenses with immediate effect, reports ETV Bharat's Mir Farhat.

Srinagar(J&K):The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Thursday revoked the ban on issuing gun licenses following a major scam, which is currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The home department of the LG administration in its order said the restriction imposed on the District Magistrates in the UT of J&K for issuing fresh individual arms licenses is revoked with immediate effect.

The administration has asked the concerned bodies to adhere to the additional conditions besides following the provisions of the Arms Act, 1959 and Arms Rules, 2016 for issuance of the license while making verification by police. It further added that an Aadhar card as proof of identity shall be considered necessary for the issuance of the license.

“The District Magistrates shall ensure that they entertain only such applications for grant of license or for accessing any other service from an applicant, who is a resident of that particular district and in no case, they shall either grant a license or renew a license of an applicant not residing within the jurisdiction of their district,” the order said.

The District Magistrates, it said, shall obtain a report from the CID Wing of J&K Police, regarding the character and antecedents of the applicant, in addition to the police verification prescribed under Arms Rules, 2016. It further said that the Special DG CID, J&K shall constitute a committee under his Chairmanship to examine each case for grant of individual Arms Licence, keeping in view the prevailing security environment.

The District Magistrates, orders said shall personally ensure that every service to be provided under the Arms Rules are mandatorily done through the NDAL/ALIS portal and physical record (duly authenticated) of all such entries which are made on the portal are maintained concurrently in their offices.

The gun licensing scam rocked Jammu and Kashmir in 2017 and the case was handed over to the CBI branch of Chandigarh. The agency had arrested IAS officer Kumar Rajiv Ranjan, who was DC Kupwara, and named several IAS officers including Yasha Mudgal, Itrat Hussain, Shahid Choudhary, and several others.

The gun license racket was exposed by Rajasthan Police in 2017-18 when it found thousands of gun licenses were issued in lieu of money by district magistrates in various districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to Rajasthan ATS, 1,32,321 of the 1,43,013 licenses were issued to non-locals in Doda, Ramban, and Udhampur districts.
A total of 4,29,301 licenses were issued of which only 10 percent were issued to residents of the erstwhile state.