The CBI on Monday conducted searches at 17 locations in Jammu & Kashmir at the premises of senior IAS officers Yasha Mudgal and Kumar Rajeev Ranjan besides the then District Collectors/District Magistrates of Kupwara, Baramulla, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian, Rajouri, Doda and Pulwama in an alleged gun licensing racket busted by the Rajasthan police in 2017.
The move comes two years after the agency registered two cases on allegations issuance of around two lakh arms licences to non residents of the erstwhile State.
The CBI said incriminating documents recovered during searches are being scrutinised.
The agency had registered two cases in August last year on the consent of Jammu and Kashmir Government and further notification from the Centre. After taking over the case in 2018, searches were also earlier conducted at 11 places including Srinagar, Udhampur and Jammu at the locations of private gun houses which led to recovery of incriminating documents including issue, renewal of arms licenses, blank application forms submitted by various licencees, money transactions of gun dealers with licencees, blank NOC purportedly issued by District Magistrates and other documents, the agency said in a statement.
“It was also alleged that the then public servants in this conspiracy of issuance of licences to non-residents of J&K in violation of rules, allegedly received gratification,” the agency said in a statement.
Several documents related to the cases, including bank statements, were recovered during the searches that were carried out at three places in Kashmir, 11 places in Jammu and one each in Gurugram (Haryana), Mohali (Punjab) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh), officials said.
Besides searching the premises of Mudgal, a 2007-batch IAS officer, and Ranjan, a 2010-batch IAS officer, houses of I Hussain, Mohammed Saleem, Mohammed Junaid Khan, F C Bhagat, Farooq Ahmed Khan and Jenhagir Ahmed Mir were searched, officials said.
Mudgal is at present CEO-and-Managing Director of Power Distribution Corporation Jammu and Ranjan is CEO of Jammu Srinagar Metro Rail Corporation
The case was handed over to the CBI on the basis of a recommendation from Rajasthan Director General of Police O P Galhotra after the anti-terror squad had busted a racket related to the matter. Following this, the two FIRs were lodged by the agency.
The CBI’s Chandigarh unit had registered the FIRs for alleged criminal misconduct and criminal conspiracy under the Ranbir Penal Code and in violation of Section 3/25 of the Arms Act, besides provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to Rajasthan Police officials, the Jammu and Kashmir government was informed about the racket in 2017 and several letters addressed to then Chief Secretary B B Vyas remained unanswered.
