Jammu, Dec 6 (PTI) The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Crime Branch Jammu on Monday separately filed charge sheets in two cases related to bribery and land-grabbing by impersonation and fraud here, officials said.
The ACB filed the charge sheet in the court of Anti-Corruption Jammu against two government officials including an executive engineer who were caught red-handed taking bribe to release long-pending bills of a contractor in 2020, a spokesperson for the bureau said.
Executive engineer, SAMAGRA (Education division) Rajinder Kumar and Assistant Accounts Officer Mohd Farooq were trapped on a complaint by a contractor alleging that the officials were demanding Rs 45,000 for releasing his pending payment of Rs 15 lakh for the construction work.
After receiving sanction from the government in respect of in-service accused, the ACB filed the charge sheet in the anti-corruption court for judicial determination. The next date of hearing has been fixed on January 3, 2022.
In a separate case, Crime Branch Jammu filed charge sheet against four people, including two revenue officials who died during the course of investigation, for their involvement in grabbing of a 30 marlas (0.187 acre) land at Sunjwan belonging to the complainant after hatching a criminal conspiracy and managing fictitious ‘Fard-e-Intikhab’ (revenue extract) to grab the land by way of impersonation in 2010.
The charge sheet has been filed in the court of special judge Anti-Corruption Jammu against the then Naib Tehsildar Aslam Din and then Patwari Tara Chand (both of them have died) along with accused Gurmukh Singh and Romesh Chander, a crime branch spokesperson said.
Bal Krishan Dutta has lodged the complaint before the Crime Branch Jammu and the allegations against the accused were prima facie substantiated which led to the registration of the case, he said.
During the course of investigation, record pertaining to the land in question was obtained from revenue department and the statements of witnesses were recorded. The original copy of sale deed dated October 12 2004 was obtained from the court concerned and seized in the case, the spokesperson said.
He said the evidence collected during investigation revealed that Singh and Chander in connivance with the then Patwari Halqa Sunjwah and the then Naib Tehsildar managed fictitious Fard-e- Intikhab, while Chander impersonated Dutta (complainant) before the court.
The spokesperson said both the accused misled the court and prepared a fake sale deed in the name of Singh.
Since Singh is absconding ever since the registration of the case, as such the charge sheet has been produced against him under section 512 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), he said.
