SRINAGAR: The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at eight locations, including the residence of former minister and chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan, Choudhary Lal Singh, The Indian Express reported. This operation is part of an ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in land purchases by an educational trust in Kathua.
Singh’s wife, Kanta Andotra, serves as the chairperson of the R B Educational Trust.
Sources of The Indian Express reported that the searches took place in Jammu, Kathua, and the neighboring Pathankot district in Punjab. They are part of the money laundering probe involving the educational trust, with the searches currently underway.
Notably, these searches come three years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against the R B Education Trust for exceeding the legally permitted land limit of 100 kanals (12.5 acres) set by the Jammu and Kashmir Government under the J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.
Several retired and serving revenue officials, accused of assisting the Trust in obtaining excess land in violation of the Agrarian Reforms Act, were also booked by the CBI. Among them were former Kathua deputy commissioner Ajay Singh Jamwal (now retired), former tehsildar Marheen, Avtar Singh, naib tehsildar Dheeraj Kumar, Girdwar Ram Pal, and patwari Sudesh Kumar.
Previously, the CBI had carried out searches at the residences of the accused, leading to the recovery of documents related to their property, both movable and immovable.
The CBI’s FIR stemmed from a preliminary enquiry conducted by the agency in June 2020, prompted by “source information” regarding the “encroachment of a significant amount of public, government, and forest land in Kathua district by unscrupulous elements in violation of the J&K Agrarian Reforms Act 1976, in collusion with revenue and forest officials.”
In October 2021, the CBI filed charges against the accused revenue officials, alleging that they conspired with the R B Educational Trust and Kanta Andotra to retain land beyond the permissible limit of 100 kanals (12.5 acres). The then tehsildar and other accused, in collaboration with the Trust through Kanta Andotra, falsely represented the land as 316 kanals and 17 marlas (39.52 acres) in contrast to the recorded 152 kanals and 1 marla and 110.13 kanals as per spot verification, according to the agency.
In an attempt to allow the R B Educational Trust to retain more than 100 kanals, the revenue officials allegedly designated 74.02 kanals (9.25 acres) as an orchard and 32 kanals (4 acres) as “gha charai” (grazing land), both of which exceeded the ceiling imposed by the Agrarian Reforms Act.
However, there was no official revenue entry confirming the existence of an orchard, and grazing land, considered common land, could not be individually purchased or sold, sources added.
Choudhary Lal Singh was elected as an MLA on a BJP mandate from Basohli in the 2014 elections and later became a cabinet minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government. However, he and another party minister, Chander Prakash Ganga, resigned from the coalition cabinet due to controversy surrounding their support for a CBI inquiry demanded by the family members and relatives of those accused of gang-raping and murdering an eight-year-old Bakarwal girl in 2018.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Choudhary Lal Singh contested as the nominee of the newly formed Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan in the Udhampur-Kathua parliamentary constituency but lost his security deposit.
