Jammu and Kashmir revenue officials booked for fraudulent withdrawal of compensation

The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) Tuesday lodged an FIR against revenue officials in Kishtwar district for reportedly preparing fraudulent papers for the withdrawal of undue compensation to the tune of over Rs 7.24 lakh.

The case has been registered against three officials, only one of whom is presently serving after a preliminary investigation revealed that they prepared papers to confer undue pecuniary benefits upon five persons while preparing a list of persons whose land had come under road construction in the district nine years ago, an official spokesman said.

The preparation of "fake and fraudulent" papers resulted in the loss of Rs 7,24,500 to the state exchequer and corresponding wrongful gain to the beneficiaries including three brothers, he said.

The officials, one of whom has expired and another has retired from service, allegedly prepared the fraudulent compensation papers in league with the beneficiaries by showing forest land under the possession and cultivation which had come under the construction of a road from Tipri to Kithar (Patnazi) during the period of 2010, he said.

It surfaced during the probe that as per a report submitted by Divisional Forest Officer, Kishtwar, the demarcation record of the area from Zerwar Nallah to Patnazi (Eid-Gah-Morh) and Tipri to Patnazi was duly sanctioned in 2009 and it fell under forest land, the spokesman said.

During the course of verification, it came to the fore that the land of the beneficiaries had not come under the construction of the road and was still under their possession, he said.

The SVO spokesman added that under a well-knit conspiracy, the then revenue officials prepared fake and fraudulent compensation papers by showing the forest land in their names, besides one of them was not even the owner of the land for which he received the compensation.

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