Accused fraudulently made payments of Rs 1 Crore to non-entitled 8 beneficiaries in 2010, FIR registered in 2011
VIVEK SHARMA
JAMMU: The tale of withholding sanction for prosecution against the tainted government officials is becoming bigger with plethora of cases surfacing with all the concerned sitting over the files or dilly dallying the issues, advertently or inadvertently.
In a glaring example of the governmental apathy, sanction to prosecute a Collector, Public Works Department (PWD) Executive Engineer (XEn) and two other officers is still awaited after 12 years. The accused were booked by the then State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) for fraudulently making payments in 2010 to non-entitled eight beneficiaries to the tune of Rs one crore towards undue compensation in respect of non existing shops in a building marked as 99/2A located at Badu Bagh, Khanyar, Srinagar.
FIR 25/2011 was registered with the then State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) now Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) against Mukatar-ul-Aziz Zargar, son of Abdul; Aziz Zargar, resident of Kathi Darwaz Srinagar, the then Collector Syed Meerka Shah Road Srinarar, now retired; Krishna Sadhu, son of Triloki Nath Sadhu, resident of Sector-1 Durga Nagar, Jammu, the then Executive Engineer, R&B construction Division No 3, Ganderbal, now retired and Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Bhat, son of Ghulam Ahmad Bhat, resident of Alochi Bagh, Srinagar, the then Land Acquisition Clerk in the office of R&B Superintending Engineer , Srinagar, still in service, posted at R&B City Roads Division, Srinagar.
This is not an isolated case wherein the government delayed the prosecution sanction due to one reason or another. There are 35 FIRs, registered in the past 10 years by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), waiting for the government sanction.
STATE TIMES its edition dated January 5, 2023, exclusively reported one of the case awaiting prosecution sanction under caption “Booked by SVO in 2013, sanction for prosecution against 10 PDD engineers still pending….Accused XEn, 2 AEEs, 2 JEs promoted in past 10 years.”
It has been learnt that the High Court vide order dated April 21, 2017 passed in 561-A No 76/2017 MP (Cr) No 1/2017 Bashir Ahmed Mir Vs State and others had stayed the proceedings in the FIR.
The SVO was then advised to file urgency memo for early disposal of the case vide letter dated September 12, 2017. The ACB vide letter No VO-FIR-25/2011-K-786 dated January 1, 2018 had maintained that the Stay order so passed is still continuing and the CMP No 2/2017 has been filed for vacation of stay order dated April 21, 2017, which is pending consideration.
In its latest communication dated April 25, 2019, ACB intimated that case was listed on various dates, lastly on April 9, 2019 but was adjourned as not reached.
The GAD vide letter No GAD (Legal) F-425/2017/963 dated August 26,2019 sought latest status of the case, which is still awaited from the ACB.
The case was again examined by the GAD and a request was made to the ACB vide letter No GAD (ViG) 25-SP/2016 dated March 16, 2020 to adhere to the Supreme Court Judgment passed in the case “Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency Vs CBI” and get the interim order dated April 21, 2017 vacated/modified and file urgency memo. Also reminder was issued to ACB on August 18, 2020 for filing the Action Taken report (ATR).
According to sources, the accused Mukhtaer-ul-Aziz has already retired on March 31, 2018 while the accused T K Sadhu superannuated on January 31, 2013. The co accused Ghulam Mohi-Ud-Din Bhat is still in service and presently posted at R&B City Roads Division Srinagar.
The matter was taken up with the PWD vide OM dated November, 26, 2020 for providing up-to-date status/details of accused public servants in pursuance of the letter no VO-FIR-25/2011-K-15448 dated October 9, 2020 from ACB. The PWD vide OM No PWD/HRM/30/2020-FIR dated January 11, 2021 furnished the requisite information and case was submitted accordingly. The case was examined in consultation with the Secretary, Law Department, GAD, in reference to the response of PWD as well as Circular No 7-JK(LD) of 2020 dated December 25, 2020 (Guidelines in prolonged stay orders) in context to the Supreme Court judgements dated March 18, 2018 and October 15, 2020 whereby it has been made clear that any stay granted by courts has a validity of six months only and the same automatically expire at the end of six months unless explicitly extended by afresh order.
It was conveyed to the GAD (Legal) section that the said circular instructions of LJ&PA regarding validity of stay orders have been stayed by the High Court of J&K.
Accordingly, on further examination, the ACB was requested vide letter No GAD-VIG-SP/59/2021 dated August 12, 2021 to file urgency memo before the court for modification/vacation of stay orders dated April 21, 2017 for taking the case to its logical conclusion. In present case, the response is awaited from ACB, sources added.
