Senior IAS officer arrested in Srinagar

A senior IAS officer was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) Monday for suspected corruption over a land lease at the famous Gulmarg ski resort.

Basheer Ahmad Khan of the Indian Administrative Service, who was posted as district magistrate of Kishtwar, was arrested by the SVO police station in Srinagar. He was produced before the court of the special anti-corruption judge, and was charge sheeted for alleged involvement in what is being called the Gulmarg land lease scam.

"Khan was arrested by the SVO and taken to the court of the special judge (anti-corruption) in Srinagar, where the SVO produced the charge sheet against the IAS officer.

"The court granted bail to Khan and he was allowed to go back to report for duties. Earlier, the union department of personnel and training (DOPT) had communicated to the SVO the mandatory sanction to prosecute the IAS officer," sources in the Jammu and Kashmir anti-graft body told IANS, not wishing to be identified.

The sources also said Khan had been called to Srinagar by the SVO and he cooperated with the sleuths of the anti-graft body.

For the last four years, the SVO has been investigating a land lease scam case in the famous Gulmarg ski resort in which another senior IAS officer, now retired, has also been charged, along with half a dozen other state government officers and employees.

It is alleged that the nexus of officials had conspired to allot prime land in Gulmarg to some influential businessmen for construction purposes, in gross violation of rules governing the preservation and development of the resort.