Srinagar: The central government has allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to prosecute IAS officer Kumar Rajeev Ranjan for allegedly issuing illegal arms licences in Jammu and Kashmir.
An official order assessed by ETV Bharat shows that Ranjan, a 2010 batch IAS officer and current Jammu and Kashmir Revenue Secretary, has been sanctioned for anti-graft offences.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions conveyed to Deputy Solicitor General of India Vishal Sharma that it has accorded sanction for the prosecution of Ranjan in the case registered by the CBI in 2018.
Citing a previous mail, the official communique said that an order conveying the grant of sanction against Ranjan in the case under Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006 was cleared on November 28 2024.
The alleged offences for which the bureaucrat has been sanctioned include section 5 (2) PC Act, 2006, which is meant for public servants who commit any offence of criminal misconduct.
What is the case?
The CBI is investigating a massive scam involving the issuance of over 2.74 lakh gun licences in Jammu and Kashmir between 2012 and 2016. During this period, district magistrates, deputy commissioners, and licencing authorities allegedly granted these licences in exchange for bribes in crores.
The premier agency had disclosed that licences were fraudulently issued by district magistrates in eight districts of Jammu and Kashmir with 95 percent of these issued in "lieu of monetary consideration" to people serving in different parts of the country and who were neither residents of the erstwhile state nor posted in the respective jurisdiction of the concerned districts.
The districts include Kupwara, Baramulla, Shopian and Pulwama, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Doda. The Bureau is probing the involvement of several high-ranking officials, including IAS officers, in the case. The scam was first uncovered by the Rajasthan police's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in 2017, and since then, several arrests have been made.
The CBI filed the case in 2018 after getting the nod of the Jammu and Kashmir government and further notification from the central government. The case was being probed by the J&K Police before the CBI was allowed to take over by the then Governor NN Vohra.
Rajeev Ranjan's arrest, suspension, and reinstatement
Ranjan and a retired officer Itrit Hussain Rafiqui -- both had worked as Kupwara DMs -- were arrested in the case by CBI on March 1, 2020, following which Ranjan was suspended by the J&K government. At that point, he was posted as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Metropolitan Regulatory Authority and Vice Chairman Jammu Development Authority (JDA).
A year later, in February 2021, the IAS officer was reinstated following recommendations of a review committee. Upon reinstatement, he was posted as additional secretary to the government's revenue department.
During the CBI's investigation of the gun licence scam, the alleged role of Ranjan and Rafiqui, who held the position of District Development Commissioner Kupwara from 2015 to 2016 and 2013 to 2015, respectively, had surfaced.
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