Gun license scam: CBI raids multiple location in Jammu-Kashmir

The CBI on Saturday morning raided the residence of former Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary in connection with a gun license scam. Sources said that different teams are carrying out these raids since morning at multiple locations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday raided the residence of former Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary in connection with a gun license scam among the 40 locations across Jammu and Kashmir. According to CBI, raids were conducted at 40 locations including at Jammu, Srinagar, Udhampur, Rajouri, Anantnag, Baramulla, Delhi at the official & residential premises of certain then public servants (including IAS, KAS Officers, then District Magistrates then Additional District Magistrates etc), around 20 gun houses/dealers in an on-going investigation of a case related to Arms licence racket.

It said that during investigation and scrutiny of documents, the role of certain gun dealers was found who in connivance with the public servants i.e. the then DM and ADM of concerned District had allegedly issued 2.78 lakh illegal arms licenses to the ineligible persons. "It was also alleged that the persons who got these licenses were not residents of the places from where the said arms licenses were issued. An investigation is going on," CBI said in a statement.

Confirming the searches himself at his official residence in Srinagar, Choudhary said that he is answerable to the investigating agency in the gun license scam.
"I have to confirm that CBI did search my residence & found nothing incriminating in ongoing arms license probe. Media friends may note the probe covers 4 years across all districts. I am fully answerable to CBI for my tenure," he said in a tweet.

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He said that during his four-year tenure as DM of Reasi, Kathua and Udhampur he has issued 3220 licenses which are among the lowest by any DM. Choudhary said that oversight or procedural indiscretion in few cases cannot be completely ruled out as this is a human intervention process that passes through several clerical stages. The gun licensing scam rocked Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2017 and the case was handed over to the CBI branch of Chandigarh.

The agency arrested IAS officer Kumar Rajiv Ranjan, who was DC Kupwara and named several IAS officers including Yasha Mudgal, Itrat Hussain, and several others.
Ranjan was in March last year suspended by the JK government, but was reinstated this year in February and posted as additional secretary revenue. The case pertains to a gun licence racket unearthed by Rajasthan Police in 2017-18 where it was found that thousands of gun licences had been issued by competent authorities in various districts of Jammu and Kashmir in a fraudulent manner.

According to Rajasthan ATS officials, 1,32,321 of the 1,43,013 licences in the Jammu region’s Doda, Ramban and Udhampur districts were issued to those residing outside the state. The figure for the entire state is 4,29,301, of which just 10 per cent were issued to residents in the erstwhile state.

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