Jammu: The Anti-Corruption Bureau here on Tuesday registered a case against four former revenue officials and multiple beneficiaries in connection with the illegal allotment and sale of prime state land in Jammu, officials said.
Ravinder Sharma, former tehsildar (South) Jammu, Mohammad Bashir, ex-tehsildar (Bahu) Jammu, Mohd Sarwar Lone, former naib tehsildar (Bahu) Jammu and Mohd Rasheed Malik, ex-patwari (Chowadhi) Jammu were among those booked, the ACB officials said.
Tara Singh of Deli, Nazir Ahmad, and attorney holder Javid Iqbal are among the beneficiaries who were booked, they said.
According to the ACB, the former revenue officials illegally allotted state land to Tara Singh under cabinet order in 2013, despite him failing to meet the mandatory condition of personally cultivating the land within six months of the allotment, a key requirement under the 1954 cabinet order.
Ownership rights were subsequently conferred upon Tara Singh on July 19, 2014, under government order in gross violation of rules, they said.
However, revenue records showed that the land was neither under the possession of Tara Singh nor was his name recorded in the girdawari (cultivation record), they said.
Instead, the land continued to be shown as “Gair Muroosi” (non-occupant tenant) under Nazir Ahmad.
The ACB also found that a Power of Attorney for the same piece of land was executed in favor of Javid Iqbal well before ownership rights were granted to Tara Singh, raising serious questions about the legitimacy of the entire transaction.
The bureau said the accused ex-officials, in connivance with the beneficiaries, conspired in a “well-orchestrated manner” to fraudulently obtain ownership of the land and later sold it for crores of rupees, thereby inflicting a substantial financial loss on the state.
A case has been registered and further investigation is underway.
