Agents credited nearly Rs 50 lakh in account of IAS officers’ kin for facilitating gun licenses

Srinagar, Aug 10: With Governor N N Vohra having given consent to the members of Delhi ‘Special Police Establishment’ to probe cases related to fake arms licenses in the state, name of another senior IAS officer has cropped up during investigations by the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of Rajasthan Police. Sleuths of the Rajasthan ATS come across a money trail in which nearly Rs 50 lakh has been transferred into the bank account of Kumar Jyoti Ranjan, brother of a senior J&K cadre IAS officer between 2014 and 2016. Sources said the amount has been credited by the agents into his bank account to facilitate issuing of fake gun license. “He has been associated with facilitating gun licenses for many years. The Anti-Terror Squad of Rajasthan police had screened his banks accounts and the amount is being verified currently,” they said. Jyoti Ranjan, owner of a Haryana-based construction company, who was arrested at Gurgaon on July 9, was the 52nd arrest made by the ATS for their connections with the fake gun license racket. During the interrogation of the accused, sources said, he revealed that the payments into his bank account were credited by another accused from Jammu, Rahul Grover. “Rahul Grover in lieu with administrative officers from Jammu got the fake license made. For this work, Rahul used to deposit huge sums of money in Kumar Jyoti Ranjan’s Bank account,” sources said adding that Jyoti Ranjan was one of the most accessible persons for the agents for getting approval for the gun license. “He had connections all over in the administration. It is been found in the investigation that the arrested accused has got hefty sum from the gang members in lieu of getting documents approved,” they said. Last year Rajasthan police busted a racket in which fake gun licenses from Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir were being abundantly used to ‘purchase’ arms from gun houses in many parts of Rajasthan, including Udaipur, Sikar and Jaipur, police said. Around 40 licenses from Dimapur in Nagaland–suspected to be fake–were used to purchase guns in Jaipur alone. An intelligence team of the police had received a tip-off that an organized interstate illegal arms and license racket was operational following which raids were conducted in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, the ATS suspects the involvement of a highly placed administrative official posted in Jammu region behind the gang. On July 12, the Governor had revoked individual gun licences issued between January 2017 and February 2018, citing unearthing of fake gun licensing rackets through “various investigating agencies, particularly ATS and SOG Rajasthan”. “In pursuance of Section-6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Act No: 25 of 1946), the Government of Jammu and Kashmir hereby accords consent, to the extension of powers and jurisdiction of the members of Delhi Special Police Establishment in the whole of… Jammu and Kashmir, to investigate and inquire” in connection with cases lodged under the Arms Act, a notification issued by the state’s Home Department said.