Srinagar, Sept 02: The Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) in Jammu and Kashmir has booked a government employee for amassing wealth beyond the sources of his known income, officials said on Monday.
The bureau has also lodged an FIR against an executive engineer, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, for misappropriation of funds by allotting work to an unqualified contractor and later inflating the cost of work.
“The ACB has registered an FIR against Mohammad Shafi Rather alias Kanda, a class IV employee in food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department for possession of disproportionate assets,” a senior official of the bureau said.
According to the official, it was found during verification that by indulging in corrupt practices, Rather had amassed assets worth crores of rupees in land and houses at various places in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The verification also revealed that the expenditure incurred, and the value of assets acquired by the suspect have been found to be excessively disproportionate to the income earned by him from all known sources during the service period for which the suspect could not satisfactorily account for,” he said.
In a separate case, an executive engineer, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, has been booked by the ACB for misappropriation of funds by allotting work to an unqualified contractor and later inflating the cost of work by 172 per cent, the official said.
The probe revealed that the beneficiary Class ‘B’ Contractor was eligible for allotment of contract up to only Rs 50 lakh, he said.
“The project manager (executive engineer) not only facilitated illegal allotment of work in favour of M/S Ubaid Rashid Wani but also gave huge extensions in his favour amounting to Rs 2,69,57,658, beyond the allotment cost of Rs 1.07 crore,” he added.
The official said searches were conducted simultaneously at multiple locations, including houses of Bhat at Charsoo Awantipora and Mominabad Batamaloo, and the house of the accused beneficiary proprietor Ubaid Rashid Wani in Srinagar.
During the house searches, some incriminating documents related to the case were found and seized on spot, he said.
