The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court expressed concern over the non-filing of the status report on the part of the J&K government in forwarding a proposal for grant of prosecution sanction with regard to IAS officers allegedly involved in the infamous arms license scam.
The division bench comprising chief justice N Kotiswar Singh and justice MA Chowdhary granted the state administration two weeks to file a status report of the prosecution sanction on the two FIRs.
The infamous arms licence scam involved several IAS and Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officers. On Thursday advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, who appeared for the petitioners in a PIL titled Sheikh Mohammad Shafi and another versus Union of India and others, pointed out that the government of J&K has failed to file the latest status report of the prosecution sanction as directed by the division bench on June 2 in respect of two CBI cases bearing FIR numbers RCCHG051201850006 and RCCHG05120185007.
On June 2, the court had directed advocate general DC Raina, additional advocate general SS Nanda and senior additional advocate general Monika Kohli to file the latest status report.
Centre’s department of personnel and trainings (DoPT) had in April 2021, requested the J&K government to remove certain shortcomings and re-submit the prosecution sanction proposal against IAS officers through a single window system.
Advocate Ahmed argued that almost three months have lapsed but the government of J&K did not deem it proper to comply with the directions of the high court in a multi-crore arms licence scam. He further submitted that sanction with regard to JKAS officers has already been granted but in the case of IAS officers, the J&K government has not re-submitted the prosecution sanction proposal to DoPT.
The court, after hearing both sides, observed and directed, “Needful in terms of order dated June 2023 has not been done. Two weeks further time is granted to the respondents for doing the needful”.
The court directed the registry to re-notify the instant PIL on September 20. Deputy solicitor general of India (DSGI) Vishal Sharma appeared for the Union of India.
The arms license scam, allegedly involving deputy magistrates, was unearthed by the ATS-Rajasthan in 2017. The Rajasthan ATS had arrested over 50 people for their alleged involvement in the illegal issuance of arms licences. According to the ATS, over 3,000 permits were granted allegedly in the name of Army personnel.
The matter was being probed by the J&K police before CBI was handed over the case by the then governor NN Vohra on August 10, 2018. The CBI had registered a case following the consent of the J&K government and further notification from the Central government in 2018.
It may be recalled here that in July 2021, the CBI had simultaneously raided multiple locations in J&K and Delhi in connection with a probe into an alleged illegal arms license case.
It is alleged that between 2012 and 2016, deputy commissioners of various districts in J&K had fraudulently and illegally issued bulk arms licences in lieu of monetary consideration.
In December 2019, CBI had carried out searches at over a dozen locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Gurgaon and Noida on the premises of the then deputy magistrates of Kupwara, Baramulla, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian, Rajouri, Doda, Pulwama, and several other places.
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