Coming down heavily on the ACB, a special court in Jammu had in last December rejected the closure report and held: “It is clear from the acts of omissions and commissions of these officers/officials that all of them acted in unison for bestowing the land in question to the beneficiary as largesse.”The special judge had recorded: “It is baffling to notice how a clean chit was given to the then divisional commissioner and assistant commissioner by ACB. It is equally disturbing that sanction for the prosecution of the then DC and Patwari was denied in an open bid to save them that too by the authority which was not competent to do so on flimsy grounds.”Citing instances of “complicity”, the high court division bench comprising chief justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal said: “The protection being accorded to law breakers is established from the fact that requests for sanction to prosecute made in 2016 and 2018 have not been processed till date.” The HC also noted that a PIL seeking inquiry into the acts of omission and commission of politicians, bureaucrats and police personnel was hanging fire since 2011. It was in March this year that the division bench asked to list the matter.
J&K High Court records ‘complicity of authorities in J&K land scam’
New Delhi: The J&K High Court, which has ordered a CBI probe into an alleged land scam, has recorded “shocking” instances that it said showed the “complicity” of authorities to ensure that the “culpable” were shielded.From not disclosing the names of those who had taken illegal possession of government land for as long as seven years despite repeated directions and strictures passed by the high court to denial of sanctions to prosecute public servants to filing closure reports, the high court has elaborated upon what it called a systemic endeavour to protect the bigwigs involved in the matter.The CBI probe is likely to cover several politicians, government officials, police officers and businessmen, for allegedly conniving to usurp public land worth ₹25,000 crore in J&K.In its detailed order, accessed by ET, the court has reproduced a closure report filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of J&K Police last July in one of the FIRs registered against influential individuals who were in illegal occupation of a land. While the bureau claimed that its probe implicated “several high-level officers”, it filed a closure report for want of prosecution sanction.The bureau admitted that there was a “police-bureaucratic political-business-media nexus for adopting the attitude of shut-eye by revenue department”, reads the high court order.The ACB, according to the order, said a piece of state land, where two police pickets had earlier been constructed, now had an illegal banquet hall on it. Also, some bigwigs had constructed residential houses, it said. The “bigwigs” included a former MLA and a retired DySP. The order reads: “In the closure report, the ACB virtually exhibited its helplessness to proceed against the ‘Big Sharks’ and despite unearthing the crime, preferred to adopt a silence as the accused involved were highly influential and enjoying clout in the corridors of power.”
