Last Updated on November 24, 2020 at 2:54 pm
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is investigating the Roshni land scam, which is worth Rs 25,000 Crores, in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The premiere investigative agency has registered the fourth case in the matter to probe the role of senior state leaders in the multi-crore corruption case.
It is reported that the role of the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah has also come under the scanner.
Under the Roshni scheme, the state government planned to regulate the encroached land for a certain amount and then use that fund to run hydroelectric projects. It was alleged that the government officials regulated the land at a very cheap price. This whole infamous incident is also called by many ‘the biggest land scam in J&K’.
The Central Government is closely following the investigation by the premier investigating agency into the scam and issued clear guidelines to the agency that no one whether they are high-profile politicians, bureaucrats or well-connected businessmen should be spared.
Prominent political leaders whose names have come up in the current investigation by CBI, includes former Finance Minister of the erstwhile state, Haseeb Drabu who bought one kanal land in Gogjibagh, Srinagar. Though the price was fixed for Rs 40 lakh per Kanal, Drabu was offered a deduction of Rs 32.50 lakh and paid only seven and a half lakh rupees for the land.
Besides Mr Drabu, his mother Shahzada Banoo and two brothers — Iftikhar Ahmad Drabu and Ajaz Hussain Drabu also got one kanal land in Gogjibagh at the same price. Rs 1 crore 60 lakh was the total actual price of the land which would have been paid by the Drabu family, they paid only Rs 30 lakh.
K K Amla, Congress treasurer and famous hotelier, also took 11 kanals of State land and his family has built Broadway hotel on the same land in Srinagar on Maulana Azad Road. The price fixation committee set the price of the land at Rs 11 crore. The Amlas got a concession of Rs 8.52 crore and became owner under the Roshni Act for the payment of just Rs 2.48 crore.
Prominent Hotelier Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya obtained in two separate cases 5 kanals, eight marlas and 4 kanal, 16 marlas in Gogjibagh, Srinagar for only one-fourth of the actual price.
According to the sources, initial investigation of revenue records has disclosed names of several former Ministers associated with the National Conference (NC) and Congress party. Sources say that former NC Minister Sajjad Kitchloo and Tanveer Kitchloo and others had encroached nearly 20 kanals of prime land in Sunjwan area.
