ACB issues lookout notice for ex-chairman of J&K coop bank

JAMMU : The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday issued a lookout notice for a former chairman of J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited in connection with his alleged involvement in Rs 223-crore land scam pertaining.

The chairman of the Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society (JCHBS), Hilal Ahmed Mir, was arrested on May 14 in the alleged land scam.

“The ACB issues lookout notice for Mohmmad Shafi Dar, ex-chairman J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited. Any person giving information about his whereabouts will be suitably rewarded,” an ACB spokesman said.

“If any person is having any knowledge and information about the whereabouts of the accused, he or she may inform or communicate through email, WhatsApp or toll-free numbers to ACB,” he said.

Any person giving the information shall be suitably rewarded and his or her identity will be kept secret. The official spokesperson said the ACB has been successful in unearthing the siphoned funds and an amount to tune of Rs 187 crore has been frozen. A preliminary inquiry was conducted by the ACB, Jammu, on allegations that Dar, in connivance with officials and a beneficiary of a non-existent cooperative house building society, had sanctioned an amount of Rs 223 crore fraudulently under the name of ‘River Jhelum Cooperative House Colony at Shivpora, Srinagar’, run by Hilal Ahmad Mir, a resident of Srinagar.

During inquiry, it also surfaced that the River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society has not even been registered with the Cooperative Societies, J&K. PTI