JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 27: The Additional Sessions Judge (Anti-Corruption), Jammu, O. P. Bhagat here on Wednesday gave three more days to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jammu, the highest anti-corruption body of the UT, to submit status of the complaint alleging Rs 500-700 crore scam in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Scheme in Jammu and Kashmir.
This followed a request from the Additional Public Prosecutor seeking more time to comply with the court’s order dated September 15 as he has not received the status report from the ACB headquarters.
The APP’s request was vehemently opposed by the applicant Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed advocate who wanted the court to issue a time bound direction as the ACB was casually taking the matter so as to hush up irregularities into the implementation of the scheme in Jammu and Kashmir.
Advocate Ahmed, after getting information under RTI from the State Health Authorities and the J&K’s Health and Medical Education Department about the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Scheme in the UT, had in October 2022 lodged a complaint with the CBI alleging scam worth Rs 500-700 crore in the implementation of the scheme.
As CBI did not respond to the complaint, the complainant on February 7 this year filed an application before the Special Judge Anti Corruption (CBI Cases), Jammu, requesting the court to direct the investigation agency submit status of the complaint. The CBI, in its status report, disclosed that the complaint stands transferred to the Director Anti-Corruption Bureau, J&K, on April 19, 2023.
Referring to a verdict of the supreme court in Lalit Kumari vs Govt of UP and others that applicant/complainant must be informed about the outcome of the preliminary inquiry within seven days, Advocate Ahmed said that ACB was under a legal obligation to share with him the outcome of its inquiry into his complaint.
