CBI inquiry against party founder's education trust political vendetta: DSS

According to the CBI's PE, it is alleged that false certificates that such land comes under the exempted category under the JK Agrarian Reforms Act were used in its purchase by the educational trust run by Singh. “We are not saying that CBI should not investigate the case which is already passing through the judicial testimony under the monitoring of High Court, but ignoring the other cases of public importance, speaks of none else other than political vendetta and politics of vengeance,” DSS vice president K D Singh Jamwal told reporters here.

Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan (DSS) on Sunday said the CBI inquiry into the alleged land grabbing and corruption by an educational trust run by its founder and former minister Choudhary Lal Singh demonstrates "political vendetta and politics of vengeance". Singh had quit the BJP following a row over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018 and later floated the DSS to mark 100 days of his agitation for a CBI inquiry into the incident. Last month, the CBI registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against R B Educational Trust in Kathua and unknown public servants to probe the allegations of illegal gratification and extraneous consideration by revenue and forest officials of Kathua district in allowing the sale and purchase of forest land to the trust. According to the CBI's PE, it is alleged that false certificates that such land comes under the exempted category under the JK Agrarian Reforms Act were used in its purchase by the educational trust run by Singh.

"We are not saying that CBI should not investigate the case which is already passing through the judicial testimony under the monitoring of High Court, but ignoring the other cases of public importance, speaks of none else other than political vendetta and politics of vengeance," DSS vice president K D Singh Jamwal told reporters here. Jamwal, who was flanked by party general secretary Hari Dutt Shishu, said it sounds ridiculous but a fact that the case which has been entrusted to the CBI, stands already investigated by the vigilance department and being followed by the revenue department under the direction and the monitoring of the high court, as a part of a PIL and "nothing adverse has been found against the former minister till date". "Earlier the inquiry was conducted under the influence of the then chief minister Gulam Nabi Azad who wanted to damage the reputation of Singh as he was afraid of his growing popularity ahead of his unsuccessful attempt to win parliamentary elections from Kathua-Udhampur constituency," he said. Shishu said it was again surprising that ignoring the sensational case like the Kathua rape and murder and encroachment of forest and state land, and also instead of action against bureaucratic nexus involved in land encroachment, the government choose a soft target in Singh, who spearheaded a movement for seeking a CBI probe in the Kathua case. "…It is shocking that the CBI, which is directly under the control of the PMO, is being used as a tool to stifle the voice of Dogra's. We trust the judiciary of the country and will come out clean but the whole of Jammu will seek answers from the present dispensations in near future," Shishu said.

Threatening agitation, the DSS leaders said the Dogra's of Jammu would vehemently oppose any kind of attempt on the part of the government aiming to "stifle" their voice..

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