The Enforcement Directorate has filed a prosecution complaint against 21 individuals/entities for allegedly issuing firearm licences in large numbers to ineligible people in Jammu & Kashmir.
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It is alleged that over 2.78 lakh arms licences were issued from 2012 to 2016.
Among those named are the then arms licence authorities (Deputy Magistrates or Additional Deputy Magistrates), including IAS official Rajeev Ranjan and one Itrat Hussain Rafiqui, judicial clerks and some officials of the Office of Deputy Magistrate, Kupwara.
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The accused persons include gun house dealers, agents and middlemen. Three of them have been identified by the agency as Rahul Grover, Syed Addel Hussain Shah, and Syed Akeel Shah. A special court in Jammu has taken cognisance of the prosecution complaint.
The ED had initiated the money laundering probe based on several First Information Reports registered by the Anti-Terrorist Squad/Special Operations Group of the Rajasthan police and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Earlier, the ED had attached properties worth ₹4.69 crore and had also seized ₹1.58 crore in cash and gold worth about ₹92 lakh. In March 2022, ED had conducted searches against several serving and retired bureaucrats, government officials, and arms dealers across Jammu & Kashmir.
The residential premises of former Deputy Commissioners Rajeev Ranjan (Kupwara), Itrat Hussain (Kupwara) and Ravinder Kumar Bhatt (Kupwara); and Tariq Ather and Gajan Singh, former judicial clerks with the Arms Section, Kupwara Deputy Commissioner’s Office were also searched.
Six arms dealers, Amarnath Bhargava (Varun Armoury), his brother Mukesh Bhargava (Bhargava Gun House), Surjeet Singh (Deshmesh Armoury), Mohinder Kotwal (Mohinder Kotwal Arms & Ammunition), Manohar Singh (Swaran Arms & Ammunition) and Devi Dayal Khajuria (Khajuria Arms) had come under the scanner.