ACB books junior assistant on corruption charges in J&K

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had booked a junior assistant on corruption charges in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district, officials said on Tuesday.

The ACB, Jammu had registered a case against Junior Assistant Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh of Doda district, presently residing on rent near the Makka Masjid at Bathindi in Jammu city, for allegedly accumulating huge assets disproportionate to his known legal sources of income, they said.

Sheikh is presently posted as a junior assistant at the deputy commissioner's office in Kishtwar.

The case was registered on the basis of a verification, during which it surfaced that Sheikh had accumulated a three-storey house at Sania (Khellani) village in Bhalla tehsil of Doda, a two-storey house at the Gulmarg Colony in Bathindi, Jammu and another two-storey house at Roopnagar in Jammu in the name of his wife in the revenue records, the officials said.

The verification further revealed that the accused had purchased a Renault Duster car, was in possession of a Mahindra Scorpio car and had huge sums in banks as well as in fixed deposit schemes.

The expenditure incurred, the value of the assets acquired and the balance in Sheikh's bank accounts were found to be way more than his income from all known sources, the officials said, adding that this constituted offences punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In order to unearth more valuable pieces of evidence regarding the properties held in the name of the accused and his family members, simultaneous raids were conducted by the ACB at Doda and Jammu in the presence of independent witnesses, magistrates and with the help of the local police, they added.

During the raids, documents pertaining to various immovable properties acquired by the accused public servant were seized, the officials said.

The searches at the premises of the accused were going on when the last reports came in.