Two revenue officials booked for illegally transferring forest land to private beneficiaries in J-K

Two revenue officials were Monday booked on corruption charges for allegedly transferring a huge chunk of forest and state land in the Darhal belt of Rajouri district to private beneficiaries, an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) official said.

A case under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Ranbir Penal Code was registered against the then in-charge tehsildar, Qila Darhal, Ghulam Hussain and the then patwari, Rajpur Kamila halqa, Mohammad Farooq, the spokesperson said.

Gram panchayats are known as halqa in Kashmir.

He said the case was registered in pursuance of an inquiry conducted into a complaint lodged by Ajit Singh of Rajpur Kamila against the encroachment of forest and state land in his village by encroachers, allegedly in connivance with officials of the Revenue Department.

During the inquiry, it was found that the revenue officials, in league with private beneficiaries and others, misused and abused their official position to illegally attest various mutations in 2016 and transferred ownership rights of over 10 acres of forest and state land, he said.

"Formal investigations has been set into motion," the spokesman added.