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JAMMU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a complaint before a special court in Jammu for confiscation of attached properties of officials and other accused persons in a sensational arms license racket case.
Officials said the ED filed a prosecution complaint against the accused before the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Court in Jammu with a prayer for taking cognizance of the offence of money laundering and for confiscation of attached properties of the accused persons under the PMLA Act 2002.
Eight former deputy commissioners are being investigated in the case, while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the high-profile case, had in 2020 arrested two officials in the alleged scam – IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan and Itrat Hussain Rafiqui.
Besides Ranjan and Rafiqui, Gajan Singh, Tariq Ather Beigh, Rahul Grover, Zumurad Hussain Shah, Syed Adeel Hussain Shah, Syed Akeel Shah, Abid Hussain Shah, Madan Mohan Bhargav, Mukesh Bhargav, Devi Dayal Khajuria, Gagangpreet Singh and Kumar Jyoti Ranjan, have been named as accused in the alleged scam.
They have been charged by the ED in the case of money laundering for the issuance of an indiscriminate number of arms licenses in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
It is alleged that more than 2.78 lakh arms licences were issued to non-entitled persons in J&K between 2012 and 2016.
The case dates back to 2017 when a routine investigation by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Rajasthan Police found an alleged nexus between some criminals in Rajasthan and arms dealers in Rajasthan and J&K.
The case was handed over to the CBI by former J&K governor N N Vohra in 2018, after evidence pointed to the involvement of J&K government officers in the scam.
