More than six years after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG ) had 'unearthed' 25,000 crore Roshni land scam, the Division Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal Friday handed over the probe in the land scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Division Bench also declared the 'Roshni Act' “unconstitutional”. Directions were also passed to the CBI to file a status report of the ongoing investigation every 8 weeks before the Court.
Soon after submitting its report to the state legislature in March 2014, the Principal Accountant General (Audit) had described the transfer of 3,48,160 kanals of land in the state at a cost of Rs 76.24 Cr (24 percent) against a demand of Rs 317.54 Cr under Roshni Act, as one of the biggest scams of J&K.
Originally, the Act was aimed at resource mobilization of Rs 25,448 Cr for investment in power sector.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Senior Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad, who had initially filed a PIL in the case in 2011, said, “A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal Friday allowed a petition that sought transfer of the Rs 25,000 land allotment scam under the Roshni Act from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to the CBI”.
Referring to the ongoing investigations in the case and why the need was felt to hand over the probe to the premier investigating agency, Sheikh Shakeel said, “till now the Anti Corruption Bureau Jammu (Vigilance) was investigating the matter and had registered 17 FIRs so far. He said, due to non- cooperation of the government agencies involved in the case, ACB could issue challan in only two cases. He said in the light of these developments the court deemed it appropriate to divest it of the investigation simultaneously handing it over to CBI.
Advocate Sheikh Shakeel also claimed, “due to direct involvement of land sharks along with top bureaucrats, politicians and police officers in the biggest ever land scam in the history of Jammu and Kashmir the Anti Corruption Bureau was not able to complete the probe in the matter”.
Challenging the Constitutional Validity of Roshni Act in its PIL filed in 2014, another senior Advocate Ankur Sharma had also sought CBI probe in the matter. During previous hearing in the case in September 2020,Adv Ankur Sharma had submitted before the Division bench, “Given the structural problems and political interference crippling the ACB, both of which are reflected in its conduct of the last 6 years of investigation, the time is ripe to bring in an independent and professional agency like CBI for investigation”.
“The conduct of ACB is “suspect” and we can’t have suspects investigating the suspects”, he further submitted, adding “since beneficiaries include Ministers, politicians, IAS/KAS officers, the ability of the ACB is crippled from within”.
Meanwhile, in its order the Division Bench on Friday said that J&K Chief Secretary will ensure uninterrupted investigation which will also be directed against those officers in whose tenures the encroachments had happened.
The court said all Deputy Commissioners and Divisional Commissioners will be held for contempt of court if they do not cooperate with the investigation.