Centre’s vendetta, says NC MP Mehdi after land fraud charges

Srinagar: J&K’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a chargesheet against Srinagar’s National Conference (NC) MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi and his relatives in a 16-year-old case pertaining to alleged fraudulent land compensation and tampering of revenue records.
Mehdi described the allegations as the Centre’s “April fool’s joke” as part of its vengeance for his repeated demands to restore Article 370. He claimed he had heard about the “alleged land scam” only on the day of the chargesheet filing on Saturday, with no prior notice in over two decades.
“There is only one way to silence me -- restore the rights of people of J&K through restoration of Article 370. J&K acceded to India on certain conditions. Restore those, and I will be silent,” Mehdi said at a presser on Sunday.
The case relates to land acquisition carried out around two decades ago to develop a colony for rehabilitation of Dal Lake residents on Srinagar’s outskirts. The MP said his family’s land was also part of the acquisition.
In the chargesheet filed in the court of Special Anti-Corruption Judge in Srinagar, ACB has alleged that revenue and agriculture officials conspired with 22 beneficiaries, including Mehdi, to fraudulently inflate land records to claim excess compensation. “These officials abused their positions to show excessive land possession in favour of beneficiaries leading to undue payments and losses to the state exchequer,” ACB said in a statement.
ACB registered an FIR in 2009 against the 22 people, including two collector-rank officials, after a complaint. “These officials through tampering, insertions in revenue records managed to inflate the quantum of land in possession of tenants. Through fraudulent mutations, the land in possession was shown as 60 kanals ((one kanal= 0.8acre) instead of six kanals , 40 kanals instead of four kanals and seven kanal instead of two kanals,” ACB said in the statement.
Mehdi rejected the claims. “At that time, many landowners had protested, demanding compensation for land they possessed, rather than for what was officially registered in their names. Govt found the demand genuine and compensated accordingly,” Mehdi said.
The MP claimed that he was not “actively involved” in the claim process and money from his inherited land was distributed among his other siblings. “I only received a cheque for Rs 80,000 as a beneficiary in the line of inheritance through my siblings. They call this a huge scam. Let even NIA investigate this,” Mehdi said.