CBI Searches Residence Of Former IAS Officer & Advisor To J&K L-G Over Fake Gun Licence Scam

The former IAS officer had also been charge-sheeted in the Gulmarg land scam case but despite the charges continued to serve as the advisor to the LG.

New Delhi: The CBI searched the residence of the former advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan, in connection with the fake gun licenses racket.

The investigative agency also searched the 40 other locations belonging to other bureaucrats/administrators across Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh.

It is alleged that Khan who was the former advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had issued thousands of fake gun licences during his tenure as earlier served as the District Magistrate of several J&K districts.

The former IAS officer had also been charge-sheeted in the Gulmarg land scam case but despite the charges continued to serve as the advisor to the LG.

According to reports, the CBI in July had informed that several district magistrates in Jammu and Kashmir were issuing fake gun licenses in collusion with arms dealers.

The agency said that some of the cases went as far back as 2012. In total over 2.78 lakh, illegal licences were issued and the agency says that it is India's biggest arms licence scam.

The case came to light in 2017 after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Rajasthan Police found criminals with licensed weapons issued by J&K government officials. The reports say that the ATS  found over 3,000 licences in the name of Army personnel which were based on fake documents.

Last year, the CBI had detained IAS officer Kumar Rajeev Ranjan over the case but this year he was reinstated.