The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is actively considering giving prosecution sanction against eight IAS officers allegedly involved in the arms licence scam in Jammu & Kashmir. The ministry has informed a division bench of the J&K and Ladakh High Court.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal, is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in this case, titled Sheikh Mohammad Shafi versus Union of India and others.
The Deputy Solicitor General of India, Vishal Sharma, representing the MHA, submitted that the J&K government and the CBI have submitted their respective replies to the clarifications sought by the Home Ministry. The ministry also informed the bench that it had convened a meeting with the officials of the J&K government and CBI to discuss the proposal of sanction for prosecuting these IAS officers allegedly involved in the scam.
Earlier, the ministry, in its status report filed on August 6, had informed the division bench that it had received proposals from the J&K government seeking a grant of prosecution sanction against IAS officers. The MHA said that the proposal will be examined and an appropriate decision taken after receiving the comments of the CBI.
The matter had come to light in 2017 when the Rajasthan ATS unearthed a huge arms licence scam allegedly involving district magistrates posted in J&K. The J&K police began the probe, but the case was handed over to the CBI by the then governor, NN Vohra.
The CBI later made a startling revelation by claiming that approximately 1.53 lakh arms licences were issued in 10 districts of Jammu division and approximately 1.21 lakh in 12 districts of the then Kashmir division, allegedly for monetary gains by the then district magistrates on forged documents during 2012 and 2016.
The IAS officers in the dock are: P K Pole (2004:AGMUT) the then district magistrate (DM) of Udhampur; M Raju (2005:AGMUT) the then DM of Kargil; Yasha Mudgal (2007:AGMUT) the then Udhampur and Baramulla DM; Jitendra Kumar Singh (2008:JH) the then DM, Kathua and then DM, Rajouri; Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary (2009:AGMUT) the then DM, Udhampur; Niraj Kumar (2010:AGMUT) the then DM, Udhampur and then DM Pulwama; Prasanna Ramaswamy G (2010:AGMUT) the then ADM Kathua and then DM, Leh and Ramesh Kumar (2011:AGMUT) the then DM, Kathua.
The J&K government told the HC bench that the ball is now in the ministry’s court, and now it is up to the MHA to decide on the prosecution sanction. The bench adjourned the matter to December 30.
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