NOOSE TIGHTENS AROUND BJP CABINET MINISTER;SVO files status report; HC orders joint demarcation

STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Division Bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Thursday directed State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) and Deputy Commissioner Jammu to conduct joint demarcation through the officials of Forest and Revenue departments of the purported forest land allegedly grabbed by a trust run by the family members of a senior BJP leader and Minister for Animal, Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries Abdul Gani Kohli.
The directions came in an open court hearing of the PIL filed by Advocate Ankur Sharma after the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) filed a fresh status report, seeking joint demarcation report.
Meanwhile, senior Advocate Sunil Sethi, Advocate S K Shukla and Advocate General Jehangir Ganai, appearing on behalf of officials/ respondents, pleaded on the basis on the recent judgment passed by Madurai Bench of Madras High Court that the names of lawyers and judges should not be published while reporting court matters.
In open court, this argument was rebuffed by the Chief Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar as something irrelevant in this case and reminded them that the Madras High Court has come up with the clarification saying that the order is only advisory in nature.
This was apparently attempt on the part of lawyers representing the Cabinet Minister to somehow prevent publication of follow up of this news item because of the approaching assembly session.
In an affidavit, DFO Jammu has marked the land in question as Forest land while as another affidavit filed by DC Jammu has delineated it as State land. However the report prepared by DC Jammu has been termed as misleading by the SVO in its earlier status reports.
The DB headed by Chief Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar while passing directions in the open court asked SVO to hold a joint demarcation in view of the conflicting affidavits of DFO Jammu and DC Jammu on the spot. Matter has been listed for next hearing on January 31.
Petitioner Ankur Sharma has sought directions of the court for registration of FIR against the Minister and his family members and thorough investigation by Police or SVO. He has alleged that the Minister and his family have grabbed the forest land at Sujwan in outskirts of Jammu city and raised a number of structures including a private education college on the same.
The status report of SVO submitted today says, ” The enquiries conducted so far have established that the institutions are being owned and managed by the family members of Abdul Gani Kohli, the building complex has been raised on Khasra No. 356 of Village Nowabad, Sunjwan as per the records submitted by the owners to the various authorities and as per the report of Forest Department i.e DFO Demarcation, Jammu Khasra No. 356 is Forest land thereby substantiating the basic allegation.
The matter was discussed with Deputy Commissioner, Jammu in light of misleading report forwarded vide letter No. DCJ/SQ/SVO-4-2015/2015-16/2487-88 Dated 14.10.2015. Since, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu had constituted a Special Demarcation Team on the request of Vigilance and directions of State Vigilance Commission under the convenership of DFO Jammu alongwith other six members from Revenue Department vide order No. 154 of DCJ 2015 dated 26.12.2015.
This team was further strengthened by including Regional Director, Land Records Jammu alongwith ETS team in the demarcation team vide order No. 157 DCJ of 2016 dated 01.01.2016 . The team conducted number of meetings with regard to the issue.
In view of the above discussed two reports dated 09.12.2016 (which has been submitted before the Court) and No. DCJ/PS/2016/976 dated 28.11.2016 (report submitted to Vigilance Organisation), the matter was taken-up with DFO Jammu vide this office letter No. SSP/2016/HLP/5554/VOJ dated 24.12.2016 and the copies of reports were also provided to DFO Jammu.
The matter was also personally discussed with DFO Jammu and DFO Jammu has further taken-up the matter with Deputy Commissioner, Jammu vide letter No. DFO-J/7514-18 dated 26.12.2016 and has sought Joint Demarcation of the area under probe by Revenue Department and demarcation wing of Forest Department in light of the relevant maps/massive from both the revenue and Forest Department so as to reach a final conclusion based on records of both the departments in the matter, states the SVO’s status report.
“Since, DFO Jammu is not satisfied with the Demarcation Report of Deputy Commissioner, Jammu and being a stake holder has sought Joint Demarcation of the area under probe. As and when the Demarcation Report, as suggested by Forest Department is received the further course of action will be taken accordingly,” the status report reads as. The PIL was filed after STATE TIMES exclusively published a report on June 1, 2015 under caption “BJP minister owns ’empire’ on forest land”
While talking to STATE TIMES, petitioner Advocate Ankur Sharma stated that he filed a written complainant before SVO against A.G Kohli, Minister and officers/officials of Revenue and Forest Department alleging therein that the minister has grabbed more than 10 Kanals of forest land comprising in Khasra No. 356/Min situated at Nowabad, Sunjwan, Jammu and has constructed a multi-story building complex where from he is running EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS i.e. B.Ed/ETT College, Para-Medical Institution, B.N School and ATM of J&K Bank.