Jammu: The government recently relieved Baseer Ahmad Khan of the charge of advisor to the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor with immediate effect.
According to an order issued by the Jammu and Kashmir general administration department on Tuesday, Khan, a retired IAS officer of 2000 batch, was relieved of the charge following a communication from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
His removal from the post came all of a sudden and raises the eyebrows of everyone.
Khan was made an advisor in March last year when G C Murmu was the Lt Governor, and he continued in the post under Murmu’s successor Manoj Sinha.
Prior to his appointment as an advisor, Khan was the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir.
If reports to be believed, Khan was relieved from the post of Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha amidst reports that his name figured in the fake gun license racket and the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) wanted to prosecute him in the case.
Quoting sources The Daily excelsior reported that the Baseer Ahmad Khan, a retired IAS officer of 2000 batch, who had his last posting as the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and had served as Deputy Commissioner of some districts during his career, was among the IAS and JKAS officers involved in issuance of fake gun licenses during his tenure as the District Magistrate.
“Name of Baseer Khan figured during ongoing investigations in the case by the CBI but the investigating agency was unable to question him and raid his premises in view of senior post of the Advisor held by him,” sources said, adding the Union Ministry of Home Affairs was concerned about slow pace of investigations in the gun license.
The CBI top brass is understood to have briefed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs about the name of Baseer Khan figuring in the gun license racket. In view of this, sources said, the MHA relieved Khan from the post of Advisor to let the CBI do its job independently.
Khan was the Divisional Commissioner in August 2019 when the Central Government had abrogated special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the erstwhile State into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
The CBI had in July 21 this year conducted searches at 40 locations in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi in connection with fake gun license racket.
The CBI had in December 2019 also carried out searches at over a dozen locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Gurugram and Noida on the premises of the then District Collectors and Magistrates of Kupwara, Baramulla, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian, Rajouri, Doda, Pulwama, and several other places.
The searches were carried out in connection with a probe into two cases pertaining to alleged issuance of around two lakh arms licenses from different districts of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir by their Collectors and Magistrates. It is alleged that arms licenses were issued in lieu of illegal gratification.
“During investigation and scrutiny of documents, the role of certain gun dealers was found who in connivance with the public servants i.e. the then DM and ADM of concerned district had allegedly issued such illegal arms licenses to the ineligible persons. It was also alleged that the persons who got these licenses were not residents of the places from where the said arms licenses were issued,” the CBI had said in a statement.
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