ACB arrests accused, recovers ₹187 crore

SRINAGAR: The Jammu Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday arrested Hilal Ahmad Mir, chairman of Jhelum Cooperative House in the whopping ₹223 crore fraud that surfaced in J&K Co-operative Bank earlier this year and recovered ₹187 crore of the siphoned money.

A preliminary inquiry was conducted by the Jammu ACB on the allegations that the chairman of J&K Co-operative Bank in connivance with the officials/ beneficiary of a non-existent Co-operative House Building Society had sanctioned an amount of ₹223 crore fraudulently in favour of the said nonexistent co-operative society under the name of a “River Jhelum Co-operative House Colony at Shivpora in Srinagar” shown/ run by one Hilal Ahmad Mir.

“During investigations, it was further revealed that the so-called chairman of the said society had moved an application to the secretary of cooperatives, administration department of co-operative societies, where he sought a grant of ₹300 crore from the J&K Co-operative Bank for taking over possession of 300 kanals of land located in the outskirts of Srinagar for construction of a Satellite Township. Accordingly, J&K Co-operative Bank, Srinagar sanctioned a loan to the tune of ₹223 crore without adhering to any formalities,” ACB had said in a statement on Sunday evening.

“The loan amount was disbursed into the accounts of the landowners but the land has not been mortgaged to the bank. Further, an investigation conducted by the Bureau has been successful in unearthing the siphoned out funds to the tune of ₹223 crore and amount to the tune of ₹187 crore have been frozen by ACB.

A spokesperson of the bureau said they will be interrogating the accused to ascertain further leads in the matter.