ED raids 11 locations in J&K in fake gun licences' scam
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Mar, 2022 10:42 AM
Jammu, March 25 (IANS) Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials carried out raids at 11 places in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in connection with the fake gun licences scam in which Rs 2.78 lakh were issued to non-entitled persons.
The ED carried out raids till Thursday evening.
ED sources said teams from Chandigarh, J&K and Delhi started simultaneous raids at 11 locations involving a serving IAS officer and several Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officers, who served as Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs) of various districts between 2013 and 2016.
Searches were conducted at residences of serving and retired officers or officials, including Rajeev Ranjan, IAS, former Kupwara DC; Itrat Hussain, JKAS, former Kupwara DC; Ravinder Kumar Bhatt, JKAS, former Kupwara ADC, since dismissed from government service, Tariq Ather and Gajan Singh, former judicial clerks at the arms section in DC's office in Kupwara district.
Residences of six arms dealers were also raided from where incriminating documents were recovered which reveal that more senior bureaucrats of J&K are involved in the gun licences scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is already investigating the case and ED has registered a separate case in this scam to investigate the money laundering and other financial aspects of the scam.
Hitting out at Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP on Monday said that Punjab Congress chief is creating unwarranted fears in the minds of farmers by suggesting that the Centre had plans to do away with the MSP system.
After literally turning a deaf ear to the farmers’ issues for over a year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, November 19, 2021, in a dramatic move, announced the withdrawal of the three controversial farm laws, which were at the heart of the farmers’ protests across the country.
Earlier, Dhesi sent a letter, signed by over 100 British MPs and Lords, to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the ongoing farmers' protests, asking him to raise this matter with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi when they next liaise.
The Chief Minister told the media here that for more than a year since the Central government had brought three agriculture laws for the benefit of farmers, especially small and marginal ones, unfortunately, some farmer unions had been protesting on the Delhi borders.
While the Centre's announcement to repeal three farm laws is seen as a political decision with eye on forthcoming assembly polls in five states, the BJP claims that it has nothing to do with elections as the party has won many states after laws were passed by the Parliament.
On January 12 this year, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three farm laws after scores of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh pitched their tents on various Delhi borders in protest against the three laws.
