The government of Jammu and Kashmir has been mired in a new scam in which people from the temple trust, revenue department and judiciary are allegedly involved.
As the government was yet to get out of the alleged cricket association scam, a multi-crore temple land scandal came to the fore.
Acres of prime land belonging to Mahavir Ji temple in Srinagar and owned by the Sanathan Dharam Pratap Sabha have been sold off, by a leading Jammu businessman who claims to head the trust. The sale has gone through flouting the Migrant Immovable Properties Act that puts a lid on distress sale.
Various documents present with various media organizations have revealed the involvement of officials from revenue and judiciary also. President, Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti Sanjay Tickoo has said that they have came across 150 documents which “clearly show that without the help of politicians, revenue officials, a retired High Court judge and some bureaucrats in revenue department it is difficult for the land mafia to grab the property and sell it”.
The present assets of temples in the valley said to be worth Rs 10,000 crore are mostly under the control of trusts and some non-state priests. Such trust keepers have continuously been reported to have sold off temple lands below market rates.
Tickoo is appealing for a CBI probe into the matter besides he has already sent letters to the President of India, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of Supreme Court, union minster of law and parliamentary affairs, state accountability commission and director of CBI to look into the matter.
The scam has already been raised in the legislative assembly by M Y Tariagami and Er Rashid who are demanding a CBI inquiry claiming that 32 to 40 kanals of land has been sold by the land mafia.
Malik’s Pakistan YATRA
JKLF leader, Mohammad Yasin Malik is all set to fly to Islamabad to unravel the memogate riddle. He is going to file an application before the Justice Essa Commission that is investigating the matter where Mansoor Ijaz, the Pakistani American business claims he has brokered a meeting between a senior RAW officer and Malik in 2000 in Delhi.
Reports are that Malik’s Pakistani wife, Mushaal Mulick has delivered a letter in the Pakistani apex court that Malik holds the ‘relevant information’ which can prove him to be innocent. The letter was read by a three-member commission and later they had decided to consider deletion of Malik’s name from the records. According to Pakistani newspapers, she was asked to communicate to her husband that if he would be satisfied by the deletion of the particular paragraph, the commission would do it after taking the contesting parties on board. The commission is expected to take the final call on this issue on Sunday.
It has been also revealed that Ijaz’s counsel Akram Sheikh is ready to get Malik’s name deleted from the proceedings but Hussain Haqani’s lawyer Zahid Bukhari has opposed the idea as Malik’s statement might help the commission to understand Ijaz’s credibility.
This is for the second time that Malik has been dragged into a controversy by Ijaz. Last time when Malik was in Makkah on pilgrimage, Ijaz had written in a British paper about the controversy. Malik says, “If anybody proves, I have ever met any RAW chief, I would retire from public life”.
Malik’s visit has coincided with the Pakistan Day celebrations in Delhi, which is a yearly occasion where Kashmiri separatist leaders are always invited and interact with Pakistani diplomats.
Rajouri STABILIZES
After remaining on boil for at least ten days due to group clashes, Rajouri town limped back to normalcy. The administration, however removed District Development Commissioner G A Khawaja and Senior Superintendent of Police V S Sambyal and posted Saugat Biswas and Mubashir Latifi as new DCC and SP of the district.
All shops, government and private offices, banks, petrol pumps, educational and financial institutions reopened in Rajouri town where violent clashes broke out between two groups on March 8 prompting the district administration to impose indefinite curfew. The curfew was lifted on March 15 during which violent clashes broke out between the members of a particular group and the police. At least two dozen people, including seven cops were injured in the pitched battles.
The clashes also rocked the state assembly where Bharatiya Janta Party legislators accused the government of failing to control the situation. Following ruckus in the state assembly, a group of cabinet ministers visited the border town and held series of meeting with the clashing groups. A delegation of majority community also visited the trouble torn areas and assured the minority of support and protection.
However, the BJP and a few right wing parties had also called for a shutdown in Jammu on March 17 to protest the alleged failure of government to contain the clashes.
Clashes broke out between two communities in Rajouri, two days after the rightwing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) International President; Praveen Togadia visited the town on the invitation of his cadres, and delivered a provocative speech against a particular community sparking protests. To cool down the tempers, police had filed a case against the VHP leader.
Cricket CRISIS
Though the officials don’t confess, but the multi-crore scam in Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) has started to cast shadows on sports developments in the state. The first major fallout was the cancellation of foundation laying ceremony of the international cricket stadium at Bajalta Jammu. The foundation stone was scheduled to be laid by the former BCCI president, Sharad Pawar, and union health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
After surfacing a few weeks ago, the alleged scam had rocked both Houses of the state legislature for three consecutive days. Principal opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had alleged that cheques have been drawn in violation of the bank rules and demanded CBI probe.
In the wake of charges leveled by PDP against the illegal drawing of cheques, J&K Bank Chairman Mushtaq Ahmad said that the bank was looking at `bogus’ accounts and financial transactions by the JKCA and would come out with a statement once the internal probe finds some concrete facts in the case. Various bank accounts of JKCA have been seized by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of J&K police investigating the scam. Police have also raided the houses of Ehsan Mirza and Muhammad Salem Khan. Ehsan Mirza is the former treasurer and Khan is the former administrator of JKCA. On a complaint lodged by Muhammad Aslam Goni- chairman JKCA, police has registered a case against Mirza and Khan in police station Ram Munshi Bagh vide FIR No 27/2012.
As the crisis outside deepened, the bouncer within hit JKCA hard. Right hand man of JKCA President Farooq Abdullah, Romesh Mahajan- the then working president has joined the opposition group of JKCA. The rival group is demanding an independent enquiry into the scam, construction work and sale of timber. More than 40 of the 62 working committee members of JKCA demanded resignation of Goni and appealed to Farooq Abdullah to initiate a CBI probe into the scam.
The game within is involving all the nerves and it is to be seen whether googly from opposition or doosra from estranged members will take off the bells. Or else the accused are able to cross the boundary line. Keep on watching!
Battling CRICKET
Sentiments surged during the Indo-Pak cricket match. It did not even spare the police training school at Kathua. To douse the fire, authorities blacked-out the premises by switching off the lights for some time. Celebration from one side resulted in scuffle between the trainees leaving two injured. Three trainers were suspended for not handling the situation properly.
Conflicting STATEMENTS
The state government does not seem to have an idea of how many Kashmiri state subjects are working in the NHPC. In a reply to a question raised by Peoples Democratic Party member Peerzada Mansoor Hussain, in legislative assembly, the government said that National Hydro Power Project (NHPC) employs only 2309 people from the state out of its total strength of 11096 at various power projects in Jammu and Kashmir. The government said the ratio of local employees in NHPC is just 1:5.
Despite this disparity, the government is still working with NHPC in a joint venture over three power projects signed in 2008. The three projects are 100 MG Pakaldul, 600 MW Kiru and 520 MW Kawar.
Few days back, members cutting across party lines in Legislative Assembly had asked Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to specify measures taken to ensure that local youth get opportunities in hydro projects being implemented in Joint Venture (JV) by Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited. However, few days later, the government while replying to a query of Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami informed legislators that total percentage of employees belonging to state in the projects executed by NHPC is 66.671.
Investigating Haji YOUSUF
Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, the counsel representing the family of deceased National Conference (NC) worker, Syed Muhammad Yousuf last week visited Crime Branch Headquarters and Police hospital at Police Control Room (PCR) after the Bedi Commission granted him permission to visit those places.
Yousuf died in custody after chief minister Omar Abdullah handed him over to the Crime Branch for investigation.
The Counsel visited the CB headquarters along with Farooq Ahmad Kathwari, who is representing the Crime Branch in the case.
“I visited the relevant room of the office of IG Crime (at Rajbagh) and the ante-room. I also spotted the office of the SHO of police station Crime Branch Srinagar,” he said.
The counsel said the spot inspection of the IG crime Branch headquarters has been relevant and fruitful and will help bring out truth in the mysterious death case of Haji Syed Muhammad Yousuf.
“I visited indoor unit of the hospital where late Syed Mohammad Yousuf Shah was allegedly admitted in bed number 1,” he reporters, adding, “Then I tried to go to the mortuary where his postmortem was conducted but that has been mysteriously and motivatedly demolished. There was only debris and some construction work was going on.”
