2 former Kupwara DMs in 10-day CBI custody

Chandigarh, March 2

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CBI sleuths on Sunday arrested two former District Magistrates (DMs) of Kupwara, Rajiv Ranjan, an IAS officer, and Itrit Hussain Rafiqui, a Kashmir Administrative Service officer, who is retired now, in connection with issuance of a large number of arms licences on the basis of forged documents.

Sources said Ranjan and Rafiqui were called for questioning by the CBI in Chandigarh. Agency sleuths found their alleged role in the case and arrested them. They were produced in court.

The CBI got their one-day transit remand and took them to Jammu and Kashmir. Today, they were produced before the Special Judge CBI, Srinagar, who sent them to the CBI custody for 10 days. As per the case, during the period 2012 to 2016, the Deputy Commissioners of various districts of J&K, including Kupwara, had fraudulently and illegally issued arms licences in bulk in lieu of monetary consideration.

During the CBI investigation, the alleged role of Ranjan and Rafiqui, who had held the position of District Magistrate of Kupwara from 2015 to 2016 and 2013 to 2015, respectively, had surfaced.

CBI sources said the investigations revealed that Ranjan had issued around 30,000 arm licences during his posting at Kupwara.

In February, the CBI had arrested a person on the allegation of working as a conduit of gun dealers and officials of various districts of the then state of Jammu and Kashmir, and also indulged in various financial transactions with other co-accused, including public servants.

The CBI had registered a case at Chandigarh in 2018 on the consent of the J&K Government and further notification from the Government of India and took over the investigation of the FIR registered in May 2018 at the Vigilance Organisation Kashmir (VOK) police station.

After taking over the case, the CBI also conducted raid on the premises of the conduit, which led to recovery of incriminating documents.

Rajiv Ranjan, an IAS officer of the 2010 batch, is currently posted as Chief Executive Officer, Metropolitan Regulatory Authority, and Vice-Chairman, Jammu Development Authority while Rafiqui has retired. Rafiqui had also served as the Director Command Area Kashmir. — TNS