J&K: CBI Conducts Searches At 40 Locations, Raids Senior IAS Officer’s Home In Gun License Scam

Srinagar: Multiple teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday raided 40 locations, including residential premises of 2 IAS officials, in Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi. This action was in connection with the probe into the alleged illegal arms license case.

A CBI spokesperson in Delhi revealed that the agency is conducting searches at around 40 locations including at Jammu, Srinagar, Udhampur, Rajouri, Anantnag, Baramulla, Delhi at the official and residential premises of then public servants (including IAS Officers).

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Around 20 gun houses are also being searched, he added.

The searches are reported to have begun early morning on Saturday.

CBI carried out searches at premises of former Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, and another IAS official Neeraj Kumar, among others, an agency source revealed.

During the period 2012 to 2016, the district magistrates of various districts of J&K, including Kupwara had fraudulently and illegally issued bulk arms licenses in lieu of monetary consideration. More than two lakh gun licenses are suspected to have been issued illegally from J&K in what is believed to be India’s biggest gun license racket. 

The CBI had registered a case in 2018 with the consent of the then Jammu and Kashmir government and further notification from the Union government, after it over the probe from the state police.

At least eight former Deputy Commissioners are being investigated by the central agency. 

(With Agency Inputs)