Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): The Anti corruption Bureau Jammu and Kashmir has booked Kashmir separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and a senior IAS officer among seven people for allegedly encroaching Custodian land in connivance with revenue officials in Srinagar. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq rubbished the claims terming them an “attempt to malign and harass” him as the government had not issued a prior notice in this regard.
A spokesperson for the ACB said that “preliminary inquiry of Anti-Corruption Bureau (PE No.22/2019) revealed that a lady Dil Rafiqa, was “unlawfully granted evacuee land by the Custodian Department without proper government sanction and an open auction, violating established provisions.”
“The inquiry uncovered that land belonging to Sh. Imam-u-Din, located at Saderbal Hazratbal under survey number 640, was allocated to several individuals, including Dil Rafiqa, in gross violation of rules,” reads the FIR.
“The illegal allotment involved 07 Kanal 19 Marlas 97 sqft of land, encroached upon individuals including a lady (name withheld) W/o Dr. Ab. Majeed R/o Hazratbal, Srinagar, Majid Khalil Ahmad Drabu S/o Saif-Ud-Din Ahmad Drabu R/o Qammerwari, Srinagar, Mohd. Amin Khan S/o Gh. Nabi Khan R/o Saderbal, Srinagar, Ab. Majeed Bhat S/o Mohd Abdullah Bhat R/o Saderbal, Srinagar, Qazi Bilal Ahmad S/o Qazi Noor Din R/o Nageen, Srinagar and Umer Faroog S/o Lt. Mohammad Faroog R/o Nageen, Srinagar,” it said.
“The investigation revealed that officers and officials from the Custodian and Revenue Departments colluded with the beneficiaries, engaging in corrupt practices and abusing their positions. They dishonestly allocated evacuee land, ignoring prevailing rules, and failed to act against the encroachers, resulting in undue benefits for themselves and the beneficiaries, causing a significant loss to the state exchequer,” added the ACB.
“These actions constitute offenses under section 5(1)(d) read with section 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Sv. 2006, and section 120B RPC. Consequently, a case (FIR No. 10/2024) has been registered at P/S ACB Srinagar, with the investigation assigned to a DySP rank officer,” it said
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq termed the allegations false and “attempt to malign and harass” him. In a statement issued in this regard, a spokesperson for Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that no intimation or notice had been received by Mirwaiz adding no current property in Nigeen belongs to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. “Fact of the matter is that no property at present -house or land belongs to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in Nigeen. The residential land and house in which he lives in Nigeen was purchased and built upon by his father shaheed-e-Millat Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Farooq in 1973, the same year that Mirwaiz Umar was born. Its boundary walls are the same since that year”.
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ACB’s false claims against #Mirwaiz: An Attempt to malign & harass
— Mirwaiz Manzil (@mirwaizmanzil) May 22, 2024
No intimation or notice received by Mirwaiz
No Current Property in Nigeen Belongs to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Residence Purchased and Built by Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Farooq in 1973 pic.twitter.com/RhfDo9R1OE
“After 1990 till yesterday when this sensational news item of Mirwaiz being booked “instantly “by ACB was released to media , he had no inkling of this matter as no information or notice was ever sent or shared with him by the concerned”.
The statement further said, “If as per the authorities there was any issue involved , the concerned as is the procedure should have intimated the Mirwaiz instead of “instantly booking “ him in the case. The motive to malign and defame is apparent. Mirwaiz and his close kin who is also being implicated , is a well respected civil servant known for his integrity , neither of who have , nor inshallah will do anything that is immoral and illegal”.
Pertinently, Majeed is a senior bureaucrat (IAS) officer currently serving as Control Legal Metrology, J&K while Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is the chairman of All Party Hurriyat conference.
