Srinagar: A day after three police officers of J&K’s Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is investigating the allegations of corruption in Smart Cities Mission project in Srinagar were repatriated to the home department, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has accused the administration of “punishing the whistleblower”.
The order to repatriate the officers of the elite J&K Police Service (JKPS) cadre was issued six days after one of the officers and a superintendent of police (SP) in the ACB, Abdul Wahid Shah, came out with a press conference, alleging that there was large-scale bungling in the implementation of the Smart Cities Mission project in Srinagar city.
Mufti, who is also the president of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said that the order “highlights the risks faced by officials who challenge corruption” and that the issue has raised “questions about the government’s commitment to justice and accountability.”
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Without taking names, the PDP chief said that the action against the three officers of the agency – which probes economic offences in the Union Territory – has exposed the “nexus between the corrupt and the most powerful”.
“This action of punishing the whistleblower has revealed the government’s true intentions behind using various agencies including ACB to raid properties of Kashmiris under the guise of corruption investigations,” Mufti said in a post on X on Friday, January 17.
The removal of Abdul Wahid & his colleagues from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) highlights the risks faced by officials who challenge corruption. It exposes nexus between the corrupt &most powerful. This action of punishing the whistleblower has revealed the government’s true… pic.twitter.com/Ua3OHQMvpS
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) January 17, 2025
Srinagar was selected as one of the two cities for the urban renewal project in 2017 by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs following which Srinagar Smart City Limited (SSCL), a special purpose vehicle was set up under the Companies Act, to execute the developmental works in J&K’s summer capital.
The SSCL has the divisional commissioner of Kashmir as its chairman and inspector general of police and deputy commissioner of Srinagar as other members on the board of directors, among others.
In a press conference on January 10, SP Shah said that following a secret investigation, Sajid Yousuf Bhat, chief financial officer of SSCL and Zahoor Ahmad Dar, an SSCL executive engineer, were allegedly found to be in possession of “assets which are prima-facie disproportionate to their known sources of lawful income” following which the agency had filed a case.
The case was filed under section 13(1)(b) (criminal misconduct by intentionally enriching himself illicitly during the period of his office) and section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by official) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (FIR N0. 02/2025) at ACB Srinagar police station, the agency said later in a statement.
Shah said that warrants were obtained by the agency from a city court and searches were conducted at seven places in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the case.
On January 14, the agency said that it had opened two preliminary inquiries into the alleged misappropriation of material procured to give Srinagar city a new look and the use of substandard material for executing the Union government’s flagship project which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 June, 2015.
The first inquiry is related to the alleged misappropriation of devri stones, path tiles, iron grills and other materials used in the smart city project.
“The material is suspected to have been either unaccounted for or allegedly sold in the open market for personal gains, during the revamp and beautification under the Srinagar Smart City Ltd. project rather than being retained in the stores of the concerned Engineering Division,” the agency said in a statement.
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The ACB said that the second inquiry was taken up to probe the use of “substandard material in ongoing development work at Foreshore Road Nishat in Srinagar City for Cycle Track, Footpath facing Dal Lake & viewing decks etc from Nishat upto Naseem Bagh PHC (Public Health Centre).”
The agency claimed that unidentified SSCL officials “in connivance with the beneficiary contractor also deliberately avoided the mandatory procedures thereby compromising the quality of works.”
Two days later, a transfer order was issued on Thursday (January 16) by M. Raju, commissioner secretary in J&K’s general administration department (GAD) and signed by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha which directed the repatriation of three JKPS cadre officers to J&K’s home department “in the interest of administration”.
Along with SP Shah, the other two officers who were transferred are Mohammad Rashid and Rakesh Kumar. Three new officers have been posted to the ACB in their place.
Earlier, the ruling National Conference (NC) said that the party had been expressing concerns “from the very beginning” regarding the “haphazard” implementation of the project in Srinagar city. “It [alleged corruption scandal] should not have happened. It will be premature to pinpoint certain individuals but this is certain that we found it shady from the very beginning and unfortunately it turned out to be true,” Salman Sagar, NC MLA from Srinagar, said.
