Revenue officials booked for fake land mutations

The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) today registered a case against some Revenue Department officials after an investigation revealed their involvement in illegal transfer of private land belonging to a Kashmiri Pandit through fake mutations.
The case, under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Ranbir Panel Code, was registered following a probe into the allegations that some officials of Revenue Department in Pattan tehsil of north Kashmir's Baramulla district have illegally transferred the private land measuring nearly two acres, an SVO spokesman said here.
He said the verification revealed that the land measuring 15 kanals 10 marlas actually belongs to Shamboo Nath of Village Malmoha and was transferred illegally by executing fake mutations and by insertions in revenue records.

"The concerned revenue officials by way of insertions in respect of possession of land in the tenants column changed the status of land in favour of tenants.
"Consequent upon these insertions, a fake mutation under Section 4 of the Agrarian Land Reforms Act, shown executed on June 16, 1989 by the then Naib Tehsildar Pattan Abdul Hamid and Patwari Mohammad Yassen followed by another fake mutation on August 4, 2003 under Section 8 of the Act executed by the then in-charge Patwari Ghulam Nabi Shah, thus illegally and by abuse of their official positions transferred the land to three sons of Jawad Sofi -- Ghulam Hassan, Akbar Sofi and Ahmad Sofi," the spokesman said.