Operation ‘Jubaida’: How India’s biggest arms licence scam involving IAS officers was busted

Jaipur, July 23: It was called 'Operation Jubaida' and was busted by the Rajasthan Anti Terrorist Squad. The modus operandi involved a huge gun licensing racket. It was found that gun licences were being taken in the name of Army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir.

The probe has now revealed the role of several officials from Jammu and Kashmir, especially IAS officers. With the role of officials coming up, the ATS feels that the Central Bureau of Investigation would be the competent body to probe the case. O P Galhotrs, the Director General of the Rajasthan Police has now written to the state's home secretary suggesting that the probe be handed over to the CBI.

In view of the magnitude of the scam, involvement of officials and implication on national security, the case be transferred to the CBI for comprehensive investigation, he also wrote.

The probe so far has indicated the involvement of some IAS officers from Jammu and Kashmir. They have been accused of issuing arms licences on forged documents. At least 4.29 lakh gun licences have been issued in the past 10 years from various districts of Jammu and Kashmir, the probe also learnt.

With this case coming to light, the J&K Government had last year asked all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners to submit a detailed report on the arms licences that have been issued. The government also barred them from issuing any further licences until further orders.

The racket:

The probe found that 1,32,321 of the 1,43,013 licences in Jammu's Doda, Ramban and Udhampur districts were issued to those from outside the state. In the entire state, 4,29,301 licences were issued of which only 10 percent were given to residents of the state.

ATS officials tell Oneindia that this racket has been on since the past 10 years. During the probe the ATS arrested the brother of an IAS officer from Kashmir. It was found that he had been paid Rs 40 lakh by the arms lobby. He was based in Gurugram, the ATS said.

The probe also found that of these licences that were issued, 3,000 of them were issued in the name of Army personnel serving in Jammu and Kashmir. The Army was asked to verify the names. The ATS suspects that it is the gun lobby which is at work here.

The case dates back to November last year when the Rajasthan police's ATS carried out an operation, codenamed "Jubaida", and arrested 52 people for their alleged involvement in getting gun licenses issued from various districts of Jammu and Kashmir under suspicious circumstances. The licenses included 3,367 in the name of purported army personnel, the officials said.

Letters were written in this connection to the Army, Indian Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, seven para-military forces including the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), National Cadet Corps (NCC), Railway Protection Force (RPF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

While most of them have replied, a comprehensive response from the army was still awaited, notwithstanding the reminders, the officials said.

As far as other organisations are concerned, the Navy informed the police that out of the list of 26 personnel submitted, only 14 cases were genuine, the officials said, adding this will help to find out how the remaining 12 people allegedly posing themselves as Navy personnel got the gun license from J and K.

The IAF was provided with a list of 39 people by the ATS out of which the credentials of only 17 were found to be correct. Similarly, of the 548 BSF personnel, records for 471 were received out of which cases of only 336 personnel were found correct, the officials said.

The CRPF list stood at 424 out of which 237 were found correct, the officials said, adding, among other forces, only 154 out of 387 were found correct for the Central Industrial Security Force(CISF), Seema Sashtra Bal(SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP), National Security Guards(NSG), Coast Guard, Railway Protection Force(RPF), National Cadet Corps(NCC) and the NDRF.