J&K revenue authorities not cooperating in Roshni land scam probe: CBI tells HC

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the infamous Roshni land scam, has informed Jammu and Kashmir High Court that Revenue authorities in the union territory (UT) were not cooperating with them in investigations.

The CBI counsel informed the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal that despite repeated requests of furnishing records, the Revenue department officials were not cooperating.

On the orders of the HC, the CBI is investigating a bunch of cases relating to the conferment of ownership rights of prime state land at low prices to ineligible applicants, which have caused a loss of thousands of crores to the state exchequer.

The alleged illegalities have come to be collectively known as the Roshni scam, named after the 2001 Land Act, under which the ownership rights were transferred and which was repealed in 2018. The J&K High Court had on October 9, 2020 declared the Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of land under the law.

On November 1 last year, the UT government cancelled all land transfers that took place under the J&K State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 — also known as the Roshni Act — under which 2.5 lakh acres of land was to be transferred to existing occupants.

The CBI counsel informed the Division Bench that the probe agency has registered 17 FIRs into the scam and investigation into four FIRs has already been completed. “However, the Revenue authorities are not cooperating with the CBI and repeated requests about furnishing of records and information are not being taken seriously,” the CBI counsel submitted.

Though J&K Advocate General denied the same, the Chief Justice asked him to inform the court about the steps taken by the J&K government to implement the earlier directions of the Division Bench.

“The government has cancelled all the mutations made under the Roshni Act”, the Advocate General replied. The DB directed for the listing of the matter on September 6, 2021.