Two former JK Bank chairmen named in Anti-Corruption Bureau charge sheet on illegal appointments

The anti-corruption branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday filed a charge sheet naming 23 people, including two former chairmen of the J and K Bank, in a case related to illegal appointments, an official spokesman said.

The charge sheet was submitted before the designated court here which fixed the next date of hearing on January 27, 2020, he said.

The spokesman said reliable inputs were received by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which showed that the Jammu and Kashmir Bank has created an "unprecedented and illegal practice of making more than 3,000 back door appointments clandestinely" including of relatives of the bank officials contrary to rules and norms governing the subject.

An FIR was registered at the ACB office in Srinagar and during the course of the investigation, searches were conducted in June this year wherein documents pertaining to the illegal appointments were seized from various sections of the bank, he said.

The voluminous record was scrutinised wherein it surfaced that from "the year 2011 onwards chairmen of the time had made around 2,500 back door appointments illegally and fraudulently", the spokesman said.

The documents seized also necessitated a thorough probe to unearth this illegal appointment scam so that corrective measures are taken by the bank to put an end to such illegal practice, he said.

On conclusion of the probe in the case, allegations were established against bank officials, which included two former chairmen -- Sheikh Mushtaq and Parvez Nengroo -- and other employees, the spokesman said. Nengroo was removed as J and K Bank chairman suddenly this year by then governor Satya Pal Malik on charges of alleged "misgovernance".

Besides these two, the others included then vice presidents Mohd Ayoub Wanchoo and Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, the then executives human resources Showkat Ahmad Bhat, Mohd Yahya Rafiqui, Arshad Hussain Dar, Asif Iqbal Raja, Syed Irfan Latief, Parvaiz Ahmad Baba, Mohd Maqbool Lone and Imran Mattoo and others, the spokesman said.

The ACB charge sheet also names three retired officials of the J and K Bank, he said.

Five people, who were benefitted in the process and provided employment, have also been named as accused in the charge sheet, he added.