Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, IAS Officer Among Seven Booked by ACB
Srinagar, May 21: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Jammu & Kashmir Police has booked Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and a senior IAS officer, along with five others, for allegedly encroaching on Custodian land with the collusion of revenue officials in Srinagar.
According to an FIR accessed by Wattan Daily, a preliminary enquiry (PE No.22/2019) by the ACB revealed that a woman named Dil Rafiqa was “unlawfully granted evacuee land by the Custodian Department without proper government sanction and an open auction, violating established provisions.”
The enquiry found that land belonging to Sh. Imam-u-Din, located at Saderbal Hazratbal under survey number 640, was allocated to several individuals, including Dil Rafiqa, in gross violation of rules.
The illegal allotment involved 07 Kanal 19 Marlas 97 sqft of land, encroached upon by several individuals. These include a woman, whose name has been withheld, wife of Dr. Ab. Majeed of Hazratbal, Srinagar; Majid Khalil Ahmad Drabu, son of Saif-Ud-Din Ahmad Drabu of Qammerwari, Srinagar; Mohd. Amin Khan, son of Gh. Nabi Khan of Saderbal, Srinagar; Ab. Majeed Bhat, son of Mohd Abdullah Bhat of Saderbal, Srinagar; Qazi Bilal Ahmad, son of Qazi Noor Din of Nageen, Srinagar; and Umer Farooq, son of the late Mohammad Farooq of Nageen, Srinagar.
The FIR states that the investigation revealed officers and officials from the Custodian and Revenue Departments colluded with the beneficiaries, engaging in corrupt practices and abusing their positions. They dishonestly allocated evacuee land, ignoring prevailing rules, and failed to act against the encroachers, causing significant loss to the state exchequer.
These actions constitute offenses under section 5(1)(d) read with section 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Sv. 2006, and section 120B RPC. Consequently, a case (FIR No. 10/2024) has been registered at P/S ACB Srinagar, with the investigation assigned to a DySP rank officer, as per the FIR.
Notably, Ab. Majeed is a senior IAS officer currently serving as Controller of Legal Metrology, J&K, while Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is the chairman of the now-banned Hurriyat Conference.
If the charges are proven against the accused, the land and house where Mirwaiz Umar Farooq resides shall be confiscated. Custodian lands are properties belonging to individuals who migrated to Pakistan after the partition.
