Special JudgeAnti corruption Kashmir RN Wattal today rejected bail application of Hilal AhmadMir S/o Sonaullah Mir R/o Magarmal Bagh Srinagar Chairman River JhelumCo-operative House Building Society Limited Srinagar who was allegedly involvedin 250 Crore Scam.

Accoridng to the ACBthat during the preliminary enquiry, the ACB said it was further revealed thatthe Mir had moved an application to Secretary Cooperatives, AdministrativeDepartment of Co-operative Societies, seeking directions to J&K CooperativeBank Ltd for grant of financial assistance to the tune of Rs 300 crores fortaking over possession of 300 kanals of land in city outskirts for constructionof Satellite Township. “The application was endorsed to Registrar CooperativeSocieties J&K for taking up the matter with Jammu and Kashmir StateCooperative Bank. Accordingly, J&K Cooperative Bank Srinagar sanctionedloan to the tune of Rs. 223 crores without adhering to any codal formalities.He said the details of the society, including balance sheet, profit and lossaccount business, activities being done by the society, PAN number, income taxreturn, details of constitution of the board and board resolutions were notfurnished to the bank when the loan was availed.“During enquiry, it also surfacedthat River Jhelum Cooperative Housing Building Society has not been evenregistered with Registrar Co-operative Societies, J&K,” the Bureauspokesperson said. “Hilal Ahmad Mir and the Bank Chairman and others haveprepared fake and fictitious registration certificates and managed the sanctionof loan amount to the tune of Rs. 223 crores.

Special JudgeAnticorruption Kashmir after hearing both the sides observed that theallegations as referred above are serious nature and speak about the volumes asto how the accused and other participes -criminus pursuant to criminalconspiracy under the notion of becoming rich with in short span of time byadopting fraudulent and illegal means siphoned off huge public money. Theinvestigation in the case is in its infancy and big fishes who conspired withthe Petitioner/accused are evading arrest. The involvement of politicians andother influential's in the said Bank scam is obvious. The release would hamperthe investigation as it may influence the material witnesses and tamper withthe evidence.

Court furtherobserved that Moreover the bank scams nowadays have become a routine mostly inthe Nationalized Banks of the country. Their officers in the hierarchy underconspiracy with the influential having deep roots in the corrupt system ofsociety have siphoned off huge public money and have even fled the country toescape the liability and penal consequences. Same modus-operandi have beenadopted by the accused petitioner and other co accused so as to execute theirdespicable plans to rob the cooperative bank of UT. The scam in the cooperativebank has assumed public importance and the same is being agitated on a dailybasis in the News Papers of UT. The deceitful and wicked intend of thePetitioner in conspiracy with other accused is a design to falsely impress uponthe public that society is registered and lawful and doing lawful businesswhich otherwise was not so. The economic offences constitute a class apart andneed to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. Theeconomic offences are presumed to have deep rooted conspiracy involving hugeloss of public money needs to be viewed seriously and considered grave offenceaffecting economy of the country as whole thereby posing threat to thefinancial growth of the country. Accused/Petitioner has played a key role inpromoting a non-existent cooperative society to steal public money from thecooperative bank of UT as is evident from the police report. The accusedtherefore does not deserve any leniency. Any concession of bail in favour ofthe petitioner shall not be taken in good taste by the public at large who arein a state of shock when the 2nd banking scam in UT in this year surfaced. Thefaith that a common man has got in the judicial system shall get eroded if anaccused is admitted to bail. Same will also encourage those who believe inresorting to illegal and fraudulent means so as to mint money. With theseobservations, the Court rejected the bail application.