FAROOQ ABDULLAH’S NAME SURFACES IN ROSHNI SCAM, NC CALLS IT FALSE, MALICIOUS ACT

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah’s name has surfaced in the illegal land mutations case under the Roshni Act scheme. The party, however, said that slander was being spread against Abdullah by vested elements.

The government on Tuesday—on the instructions of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court—made the list public about the beneficiaries under the Roshni Scheme of land transfer in the Union Territory. As per the government, it is a scam to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore.

The National Conference rebutted the claim in some sections of the media that Abdullah was the beneficiary of the scheme. “The news attributing to sources that Dr Farooq Abdullah is a beneficiary of the Roshni Act is completely false and is being spread with a malicious intent,” the NC spokesman said on Twitter.

He said Abdullah has not availed of the Roshni scheme for either his residence in Srinagar or in Jammu and anyone who says otherwise is lying. “The fact that they are using sources to plant this story shows that it has no legs to stand on,” said the spokesman.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration published on its website the list of beneficiaries under the Roshni Act. The beneficiaries include former state ministers, retired civil servants and politicians, including former J&K Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu.

Drabu told the media that the allegations were baseless as he got it as ancestral land and had purchased it from a judge. He said that at the time of Roshni scheme he was not in the government and had submitted the money as per the rules prescribed by the government.

The J&K HC recently ordered a CBI probe into a case of massive encroachment of government land under the Roshni scheme.