‘Land grab’: CBI searches 11 locations in J&K

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 4

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today conducted searches at 11 locations in Jammu and Kashmir, including offices and residential premises of public servants and three formers chief executive officers (CEOs) of the Patnitop Development Authority (PDA), in a case relating to the alleged large-scale illegal construction/encroachment of land at the tourist destination in Udhampur district.

The searches were conducted in Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua districts of the Union Territory, the CBI officials said.

The CBI has accused 74 persons, including eight public servants and 66 owners/proprietors of hotels, resorts and guest houses. Earlier, a preliminary enquiry (PE) was registered and an inquiry was conducted by the agency on the directions of the High Court of J&K in the matter. The officials said recently the agency converted the PE into regular first information report (FIR).

“It was alleged that the public servants, who were having dominion/jurisdiction over land in Patnitop, conspired with the owners/proprietors of the hotels/guest houses/resorts, etc and had allowed illegal construction/illegal use of the said land in violation of the law, leading to the loss to the government,” CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said in a statement.

It was further alleged that many hotels/guest houses were constructed without permission and were not registered with the PDA. It was also alleged that officials did not take any action despite being aware of such encroachment. In some cases, no compounding fee was allegedly deposited by the hotels, Gaur said quoting the FIR. .

The searches were conducted at the offices and residential premises of the three former CEOs of the PDA and officers of the Transport Department and Sales Tax Department, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents, huge investment in fixed deposits and immovable properties, the official said, adding that further investigation was continuing in the case.

The accused would soon be summoned for questioning and separate disproportionate cases were likely to be registered against them after the verification of the seized documents relating to their assets, the officials said.

The three former CEOs of the PDA accused in the case are SM Sahni, KK Gupta and Dr MM Malik, they said, adding that the other accused were Additional Transport Commissioner of Jammu Rakesh Kumar Sarangal, Joint Transport Commissioner Raman Kumar Kesar, Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax Recovery Rajendra Singh and Inspectors Amresh Jasrotia and Zaheer Abbas.