The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday filed charge sheet in the alleged Rs 223 crore loan scam case unearthed in J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited
The charge sheet was filed against Muhammad Shafi Dar, former chairman, J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited; and Hilal Ahmad Mir son of Sonaullah Mir of Magarmal Bagh, Srinagar and Abdul Hamid Hajam son of Ghulam Nabi Hajam of Zakura, Hazaratbal, Srinagar, respectively chairman and secretary of “non-existent” River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society Srinagar.
A spokesman of the ACB Jammu in a statement said that a case FIR 04/2020 was registered against Dar and others under various sections of law in ACB Srinagar for allegedly sanctioning loan of Rs 250.00 crore in favour of the “non-existent” River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society for construction of a satellite township at Shiv Pora, Srinagar.
It said that the credit policy of the bank had been bypassed and the loan granted on the basis of false and fabricated documents.
“Investigation revealed that a conspiracy was hatched between Muhammad Shafi Dar, Hilal Ahmad Mir, Abdul Hamid Hajam, Muhammad Mujib ur Rehman Ghassi, then Registrar Cooperative Societies J&K, Syed Ashiq Hussain Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies and others in creating a non-existent society under the name and style of River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, Magarmal Bagh Srinagar in 2018-19 for obtaining loan from the bank on the false pretext of constructing a Satellite Township in Shivpora, Srinagar.
“Subsequent to the conspiracy, at the behest of other accused persons and in furtherance of the conspiracy that was hatched as revealed in the investigation, a fake and fictitious registration certificate of the society was created by the accused persons and Hilal Ahmed Mir approached the secretary to government Cooperative Department namely Abdul Majid Bhat through the medium of an application dated 10.01.2018 wherein directions were sought from the J&K Cooperative Department to J&K State Cooperative Bank Srinagar for grant of financial assistance (loan advance) to the tune of Rs. 300 crore for the construction of Satellite Township on 300 Kanals of proprietary land located in the outskirts of Srinagar city.
“The conspiracy of routing the application through the office of Registrar of Cooperative Societies was to camouflage the illegal acts of the accused and give it a stamp of government approval as otherwise there was no such precedence of routing loan application through the office of Registrar for sanction of a loan in favour of a Cooperative Society and neither it was prescribed as mandatory requirement in the Cooperative Societies Act.
“The application of Hilal Ahmad for seeking financial assistance was approved and forwarded to the Chairman J&K Co-operative Bank Srinagar by Muhammad Mujib Ur Rehman Ghasi for the sanction of the loan. The Chairman of the Bank in conspiracy with the borrower sanctioned the loan amount of Rs. 250 crore in favour of the said fictitious society and out of that Rs 223 crore was released. The amount was raised by the Bank as loan on the FDRs of JKSTCB Srinagar with J&K Bank.
“The whole loan amount was transferred into the account of accused Hilal Ahmad Mir with JKSTCB Srinagar from where the whole amount was transferred through RTGS/NEFT into the accounts of 18 persons who are merely presumed to be shareholders/legal heirs of the land measuring 257 kanals and 19 Marlas in Shivpora Srinagar.
“During Investigation, out of Rs 223 crore loan amount which was transferred into the accounts of 18 land owners Rs 202 crores has been frozen and also the land which was illegally leased out to a fictitious Society has been got attached through government.
“After completing investigation, the charge sheet has been filed before the Court,” the statement said.