Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 20: Ex-deputy CM Tara Chand's PRO Kewal Sharma, who has a fleet of luxurious cars and four bungalows at different places in Jammu, also allegedly owns flats in New Delhi and plots in Sidhra, Domana, Chhani Himmat, Akhnoor, Khour and Srinagar areas of the state. In a disproportionate assets case, vigilance organisation, Jammu, (VOJ) had Friday last carried out simultaneous raids at his Paloura and three other residences and seized several incriminating documents, besides a cash of Rs 10 lakh. Banking transactions of Rs 4 cr were also detected during 2013-14 in his bank accounts.
For his sustained interrogation, IG, vigilance organisation, Alok Puri flew from Srinagar to Jammu. During his 3-hour grilling, he was alleged to have told his interrogators that he also owned flats in New Delhi and plots in different Jammu areas, including Sidhra, Domana, Chhani Himmat, Akhnoor and Khour. He was also alleged to have purchased property in Srinagar and the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
His bank lockers and bank accounts have already been seized by VOJ which suspects that the ex-PRO must have kept some "ill-gotten" money in the bank lockers. A list was being made of his assets within and outside the state, police sources said.
Kewal, a forest guard, was alleged to have created property worth crores of rupees in the past 10 years. The SVO was making efforts to get a detail of his assets which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.
He was also alleged to have purchased property in the names of his relatives whose accounts and bank lockers would be searched during the course of investigation into the case, sources said.
Kewal, originally a resident of Kachrial, Akhnoor, is at present putting up at Patta Paloura. He was already facing the vigilance inquiries in a scam of appointments in education department.
After the raid, VOJ had stated that he had also visited several foreign countries when he was PRO of the ex-deputy CM. The VOJ was also trying to find out from him the motive of his foreign trips.
Kewal has a double storey palatial bungalow at Patta Paloura, a residential house at Border Migrant Colony, Paluwan, Akhnoor, a residential house in his ancestral village of Dhangar, Kachrial, and further extension of the Dhangar house.
At the time of raid, the SVO found him in possession of a TATA Safari (4582/ JK02BJ), a Mahindra Scorpio (0900/JK02AB), a Thar Jeep, a Volvo bus,a minibus, a tractor and one JCB. Some of these vehicles were purchased by him in the names of other persons, sources alleged.
Several incriminating documents, including documents related to foreign tours, cheque books, bank pass books, credit cards, a passport, revenue documents, a laptop, a CCTV Control Unit, were also seized by the raiding SVO team.
Kewal's movable and immovable property was valued at crores of rupees. |
