A senior engineer arrested for graft

Srinagar, Mar 23: The Jammu and Kashmir Vigilance Organisation (VO) arrested a senior engineer for graft and booked two others for possessing disproportionate assets.

A VO spokesman said today that said that a contractor Altaf Ahmad Ganai lodged a complaint that Khurshid Anwar Shah, an Assistant Executive Engieer (AEE) of Magam Sub-Division of the Gulmarg Development Authority, demanding a bribe from him for passing a bill worth Rs 1.16 lakh against a work.

Similarly, a case was registered and the accused AEE was arrested red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 2000 from the contractor for passing his bill worth Rs 1.16 lakh.

The bribe money was recovered fromthe AEE in presence of an indepedent witness, he said adding the engineer has been arrested.

He said in another case, the VO filed a charge-sheet in the court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption, Srinagar against Abdul Rashid Darzi, a head constable.

The accused was caught while accepting a bribe of Rs 700 from Saleem Ahmad Sofi for extending help in the investigations of a case on July 11 last year.

The VO also registered a case against an official of the Centaur Lake View Hotel and the brother-in-law of a suspended Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) for possessing disproportionate assets.

He said Aijaz Ahmad Lala, an employee of the Centaur Lake View Hotel, had acquired property disproportionate to his known sources of income through corrupt means.

During investigations, it was found that Lala had acquired a house at posh Rajbagh area here in his name and converted it into a hotel ''Lee Lords''.

He had also purchased ten kanals of land at Haripora Harwan on the city outskirts and converted into Cherry orchards.

The accused had bought one kanal and five marlas of land at Lakshmi Puram, Chinnore in Jammu on which a residential house was being constructed.

He said the inquiry further revealed that the only known and visible source of income available to Lala was his salary.

A case has been registered against him and investigations taken up, he said adding during the searches in the residential premises by the VO some incriminating documents related to the acquisition of assets by suspended SSP Mushtaq Ahmad Kenu, who is the brother-in-law of Lala, have been seized, he added.

UNI