The CBI on Tuesday conducted searches at multiple locations in Jammu and Kathua in connection with a land grab case against R.B. Educational Trust, allegedly linked to former State Minister Choudhary Lal Singh, and others.
Among those named in the FIR are R.B. Educational Trust (through its chairperson Kanta Andotra, wife of Mr. Singh); the then Deputy Commissioner (Kathua) Ajay Singh Jamwal, Tehsildar Avtar Singh, Naib Tehsildar Des Raj and two other local revenue officials, Ram Pal and Sudesh Kumar, besides unknown persons.
It is alleged that they helped the trust get possession of land much beyond the ceiling limit and also submitted a false affidavit in the High Court in support of the trust, causing loss to the exchequer.
The agency alleges that the trust was allowed to retain the land beyond the permissible ceiling limit of 100 standard kanal fixed in the Agrarian Reforms Act by deliberately giving the wrong exemption of 32 kanals of grazing land and showing it as an ‘orchard’.
Mr. Singh resigned from the post of Forest Minister in the BJP-PDP government in April 2018, after explanations were sought on his presence at a rally organised in support of the accused persons in the Kathua gang rape and murder of a minor in January that year.
He left the BJP in February 2019 and set up his own organisation named Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan.
