Misappropriation of Funds: ACB registers case against Executive Officer MC Shopian, others

SRINAGAR — Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday said that it has registered a case against Executive Officer, Municipal Committee, Shopian and others for misappropriation of funds.

As per a statement issued to the news agency KNO, Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case of criminal misappropriation against Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar, Executive Officer, Municipal Committee, Shopian; Ghulam Rasool Mir, Khilafwarzi Officer; Naseer Ahmad Indrabi, Head Assistant; Showkat Hussain Teli; Works Supervisor; Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, Driver and others under sections 5(1)(c)(d) r/w 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act Svt 2006 and section 120-B RPC on the outcome of a verification.

During the course of the verification, it surfaced that the Municipal Committee Shopian had purchased an Ashoka Leyland BS-IV Tipper from GeM Portal in the year 2018 against which they had issued fuel of 11,051 litres from January 2018 to March 31, 2020 by inflating the figures of fuel consumption, the statement reads.

“The Executive Officer, Municipal Committee, Shopian constituted a committee which had fixed fuel consumption of 11 litres per hour against the said Tipper, whereas, the same during verification was computed only 3 litres per hour as per the opinion of Mechanical Engineering Department. Thus, 8 litres of fuel per hour as such was usurped by the people at the helm of the committee by misuse and abuse of their official position which aggregated to 11,051 litres for the above period.

“Besides, against an already grounded Tipper, the committee had also illegally issued fuel measuring 3566 litres from February 2018 to March 2020, causing misappropriation of funds amounting to several lakhs,” the statement said.

After registration of the case, searches in accordance with the law were conducted at the residential houses of the accused situated at Bemina Srinagar; Frestbal Pampore; Pucchal Pulwama; Batpora Shopian and Hargam Shopian.

During the search, some important documents related to the case were collected and consequently seized, the statement said, adding that further investigation of the case is in progress.