JAMMU: The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has returned a proposal for sanctioning the prosecution of three IAS officers of AGMUT cadre allegedly involved in arms licences scam in Jammu and Kashmir, citing missing documents, and directed the chief secretary to resubmit the proposal with all the documents within a week.The IAS officers in question include Yasha Mudgal (2007 batch), Shahid Iqbal Choudhary (2009 batch) and Niraj Kumar (2010 batch).According to MHA’s March 8 directive, the revised submission must include FIR copies, witness statements, investigation reports, recovery memos, and legal department opinions, among other documents.The sanction proposal for two other IAS officers who had served in Ladakh should be sent with administrative approval, it added. Earlier, in a communication on Feb 12, MHA had instructed the J&K chief secretary to forward CBI’s prosecution sanction proposals for M Raju (then DM Kargil) and Prasanna Ramaswamy G (then DM Leh), with the approval of the lieutenant governor of Ladakh.The General Administration Department of J&K had submitted a status report on Dec 27, 2024, informing the J&K and Ladakh High Court that the UT administration’s proposal on the three IAS officers had been forwarded to MHA for a final decision.The case of IAS officer P K Pole was still under review, while clarification had been sought regarding the jurisdictional aspect for Prasanna Ramaswamy and Raju, it was conveyed to the court.The next hearing in the arms licences scam case is scheduled before a division bench on March 20.Since 2019, CBI has been probing irregularities in granting more than 2,78,000 arms licences in J&K between 2012 and 2016, with district magistrates (DMs), deputy commissioners (DCs) and licensing authorities accused of issuing licences for monetary considerations.CBI had sought sanction against a total of eight IAS officers posted in different districts of J&K.On Feb 21 this year, CBI had booked J&K’s labour and employment department secretary Kumar Rajeev Ranjan and his family members for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets more than their known sources of income.A 2010-batch IAS officer, Ranjan, who was earlier Kupwara DC, is under the central probe agency’s scanner over granting of thousands of arms licences to non-residents in J&K. In Nov 2024, the Centre had granted sanction to prosecute Ranjan.The entire racket was unearthed by Rajasthan Police in 2017, which wrote several letters to the then J&K govt but did not receive any response. The Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad claimed 1,32,321 of the 1,43,013 licences in Doda, Ramban and Udhampur districts in Jammu region were issued to those residing outside the J&K. The figure for the entire J&K was estimated to be 4,29,301, of which only 10% of the licences were issued to its residents.
J&K arms licence scam: MHA denies nod for prosecution of 3 IAS officers citing missing documents, asks chef secy to resubmit proposal
