Jammu and Kashmir: Congress leader in trouble over home ‘built on state land’

Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir revenue minister Raman Bhalla seems to be in trouble over his palatial house built allegedly on state land.

Justice Javed Iqbal Wani of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has on Wednesday directed the court’s registry to list before the division bench a writ petition highlighting the construction of the house at village Deeli (Marble Market).

When the petition came up for hearing, Sheikh Shakeel, advocate for the petitioner Prof S K Bhalla, submitted that the then revenue minister had constructed a huge house on a portion of state land bearing Khasra No. 781. More than 154 kanals of land under that Khasra number was transferred by the then state government to Jammu Development Authority in 2004, but the JDA and revenue authorities deliberately allowed that portion of prime land, worth crores of rupees, to be encroached upon by land mafia, he added.

The petition pointed out that a division bench had earlier declared the Roshni Act as void ab initio and directed the CBI to investigate “this loot of prime JDA land”.

After considering the submissions of advocate Shakeel, Justice Wani directed the registry to list this petition accordingly after verifying the facts from the records.