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CBI raids former J&K minister Lal Singh’s premises in Rajbagh, Kathua
On June 25, CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry to probe into allegations of land grabbing and corruption by an educational trust run by Singh, who had quit the BJP in 2018
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday morning raided the residential premises of the former Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) minister and the founder of Dogra Swabhimaan Sanghthan (DSS), Choudhary Lal Singh, in Rajbagh and Kathua in Jammu, officials said.
“Two CBI teams launched searches on the premises of Choudhary Lal Singh in ward number 2 of Kathua town and in Rajbagh around 7 am,” said an official.
CBI has registered a case against RB Educational Trust, by an educational trust run by Singh, , who had quit the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in 2018, and others including the then DC Kathua (J&K), the then Tehsildar, then Naib Tehsildar, the then Girdawar, the then Patwari and other unknown persons on the allegations of having facilitated the trust to possess land much beyond the ceiling limit, and submitting false affidavits in support of the trust, causing losses to the State exchequer.
Singh had resigned from the party following a row over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl at Rasana in Jammu’s Kathua district in 2018.
Searches at nine locations ( three in Jammu and six at Kathua) including at RB Education Trust, the residence of its chairperson and other accused persons are underway.
On June 25, CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against RB Educational Trust to probe into the allegations of illegal gratification and extraneous consideration by the revenue and forest officials of Kathua district in allowing the sale and purchase of forest land.
The PE alleged that false certificates of the land, which comes under exempted category of Jammu &Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976 were used by the educational trust in its alleged land-grabbing activities.
The PE claimed that the trust, a beneficiary of such alleged illegal acts, has in its possession huge tracts of land in gross violation of the ceiling prescribed under the Act.
It also alleged that erroneous information was submitted in the Jammu & Kashmir high court (HC) on June 9, 2015 as public interest litigation (PIL) in a bid to favour the trust, the official said.
