J&K Bank raids: How a complaint on illegal appointments opened a can of worms

New Delhi, June 10: The Anti Corruption Bureau has found large scale irregularities during the raids it conducted at the corporate headquarters of the Jammu and Kashmir bank.

Irregularities were found in matters of appointments, finance and loans, informed sources tell OneIndia. On Saturday Parvez Ahmad Nengroo was moved as the chairman cum managing director of the bank. The Home Ministry has decided to split this post. R K Chibber, who was the executive president of the bank has been appointed interim CMD.

The ACB went through a great deal of files in the Human Resources section. The team of the anti corruption unit spent over 3 hours checking files as the focus was largely on irregularities in recruitments.

Home Ministry officials say that the ACB had received complaints about irregularities in appointments. Further loans worth over 100s of crores were sanctioned in violation of the guidelines. Further, the ACB is also probing how huge loans were granted to habitual defaulters of the bank.

The case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act on the basis of a complaint relating to illegal and fraudulent appointments made at the bank. Further it is also alleged that several officials of the bank had committed criminal misconduct.

Further the ACB is also probing how Rs 8 crore was spent by the bank under the corporate social responsibility on the beautification of the Royal Spring Golf Course near the Dal Lake in Srinagar. Also under the scanner are several lakhs of rupees that were spent on advertisements in newspapers, which never appeared.

The bank was established in 1938 and the state government holds 59.3 per cent of the stake. In the wake of the developments, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister warned against mixing politics with an anti-corruption probe.