Jammu and Kashmir Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is probing alleged scams in J&K Bank, has asked the former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, to explain whether any backdoor appointments were made during her tenure.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau(ACB) has issued a notice to the former chief minister asking her whether shehad verbally or otherwise endorsed the recommendations made by some ministersfor appointments in J&K Bank.
“During the course of investigations of case FIR No. 10/2019police station ACBK dated 08/06/2019, it has surfaced that some appointmentswere made by chairman JK Bank on references of recommendation of fewministers,” reads the ACB notice to Mehbooba issued on Saturday.
“It may please be clarified that whether such references hadyour endorsement, verbal or otherwise, for appointments in J&K Bank,”notice adds.
Mehbooba posted the notice on Twitter, saying she was notsurprised by the development. “Not surprised to receive a letter from theAnti-Corruption Bureau. Concerted efforts are being made to browbeat mainstreamleaders & thwart potential efforts for a collective response. I am toosmall an entity vis-a-vis the cause that unites us today. Such tactics won’twork,” she wrote.
On July 22, the ACB registered a case against the formerJ&K Bank chairman Parvez Ahmed Nengroo for ‘criminal misconduct’ underJ&K Prevention of Corruption Act 2006. Earlier on 8 June, the Governor’sadministration removed Nengroo from the post of Chairman-cum-Managing Directorof the J&K Bank. Nengroo was facing charges of favoritism and corruptionand last year, Governor Satya Pal Malik had exposed a backdoor appointment scamduring the People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party government.
He had said had saidthat the selection list of 528 candidates in the Bank was changed to appointpolitical workers of the parties. There are allegations that illegal andfraudulent appointments were made in the Bank with political patronage when theMehbooba led PDP-BJP alliance was in power from 2016 to 2018.
The ACB was constituted after the Governor SP Malik ledState Administrative Council. The SAC gave powers to the bureau “to tackle and eradicate corruption inthe state in a more effective and meaningful manner.”
The Governor has been reiterating that “Anti-CorruptionBureau won’t spare anyone including those belonging to big political parties.”
Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam earlier stated that theACB has been created to overcome shortcomings and do away with the multiplicityof roles in the existing anti-corruption mechanism in the state.