ACB sleuths conclude raids at J&K Bank headquarters

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Sunday concluded its search and seizure operations at Jammu and Kashmir Bank's corporate office here, undertaken Saturday as part of its probe into the alleged fraudulent appointments in the bank, officials said.

"The searches of the premises of J&K Bank which started yesterday after registration of FIR by Anti Corruption Bureau has been concluded today (Sunday)," a spokesman of the ACB said.

He said further investigation in the case is going on.

Earlier, Sunday morning, the sleuthsof ACB along with police reached the corporate headquarters of the bank situated at M A Road here in the summer capital of the state and continued the searches at the premises for the second day, officials said.

They said the ACB officials were checking the files and documents related to appointments made in the bank in the recent years.

The ACB raided the corporate headquarters of the bank on Saturday within minutes of the sacking of its chairman Parvez Ahmad by the state government.

The government had ordered Ahmad's dismissal and replaced him with an interim chairman R K Chibber who was executive president of the financial institution.

The bureau is looking for the records of the nearly 1200 appointments made allegedly at the behest of political masters of the previous PDP-BJP dispensation in the state during Ahmad's tenure as the bank's chairman, the officials said.

They said the ACB has registered a case on Saturday under the Prevention of Corruption Act on the basis of a written complaint on illegal and fraudulent appointments made in the bank.

The allegations reflected in the complaint disclose commission of criminal misconduct by J&K Bank officers, the ACB spokesman said.

This constitutes offence "under section 5(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act Samvat-2006 and punishable under section 5(2) of the Act,case FIR No 10/2019 was registered in P/S Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Central Kashmir in Srinagar and investigation of the case was taken up," he said.

Immediately after the FIR was registered, searches were conducted at the bank's headquarters and during the operation, "documents/discriminatory material pertaining to the appointments were seized, the spokesman said on Saturday.

The government, which owns majority stake in the bank, has said the decision to sack Ahmad was part of long term measures for improving functioning of the bank in accordance with RBI guidelines.

An official spokesman on Saturday said keeping in view the concerns expressed in various quarters regarding the governance and functioning of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, the government has decided to take long term measures to improve the functioning of the bank, so that it becomes a shining example of a well managed government owned bank.