Srinagar, August 20, KDC: The Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a chargesheet against 14 accused persons, including 11 Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials, one Revenue official, and two private beneficiaries, in connection with an illegal building permission scam at Barthana, Qamarwari.
The chargesheet in case FIR No. 04/2019 was produced before the Court of Special Anti-Corruption Judge Srinagar under Sections 5(1)(d) r/w 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Svt. 2006, and Section 120-B RPC.
According to the ACB, the case was registered after it was found that SMC officers, in connivance with Revenue authorities, fraudulently facilitated construction on State land. The building permission was issued in the name of Ghulam Qadir Sofi, who had died in 2008. His son, Mohammad Arif Sofi, allegedly misused the permission to raise a commercial complex in violation of sanctioned drawings and also encroached adjoining State land by manipulating revenue records.
Investigations, supported by oral and documentary evidence, established that the accused public servants abused their official positions in criminal conspiracy with the beneficiaries, conferring undue pecuniary benefit at the cost of the government exchequer.
After obtaining sanction for prosecution from the government, the chargesheet was produced against the 14 accused for judicial determination. The Hon’ble Court has fixed the next hearing for October 7, 2025 (KDC)
