On Tuesday, the anti-corruption court that had ordered reinvestigation into Gulmarg Land Scam, involving Lt. Governor’s advisor, Baseer Khan, adjourned the hearing of the case for want of powers in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, reported IANS.
The first additional district and sessions judge, Baramulla, adjourned the hearing of the infamous Gulmarg land scam case since the Service Regulatory Order (SRO), which would empower him to hear cases under the anti-corruption laws as the special judge anti-corruption court in addition to his duties as the first additional district and sessions judge, has still not been issued by the Union Territory’s department of law and justice.
In October 2020, the J-K Anti-Corruption Bureau had indicted Baseer Ahmad Khan for his alleged role in the case, again, in its reinvestigation report.
The case was being heard earlier by Naseer Ahmad Dar, who was transferred and Mohammad Ashraf Khan was posted in his place. On 11 June, the previous special judge of the anti-corruption court, Dar had directed the anti-corruption bureau to further investigate the case and file a supplementary charge sheet in the case.
The Gulmarg land scam case was registered by the then state vigilance commission (now anti-corruption bureau) in 2009.
The First Investigation Report (FIR) was registered against twenty persons, including two senior IAS officers of that time, who were charged for fraudulently transferring large chunks of state land into private ownership in the Gulmarg ski resort.
The J-K high court division bench has passed instructions to the trial court to decide the case expeditiously.