Rasool DC is finally behind bars after 8 years

Rasool DC has finally been arrested after dodging the authorities for the last eight years. This absconder was notorious for facilitating transfer of Kashmiri Pandit migrant property in Srinagar City, valuing crores of rupees by forging a fake power of Attorney.  There, are, however, so many more such Rasool DCs within and outside the Government machinery who  had mushroomed in Kashmir valley only to grab Kashmiri migrants’ land since the eruption of militancy in 1990.

It was an effort of the Special Team of the Economic Offences Wing of Crime Branch Jammu in successfully apprehending a long-sought absconder accused— Gh. Rasool Mir, known as Rasool DC. The accused, a resident of Gulab Bagh Srinagar, who was evading authorities for a staggering eight years, was finally arrested from Srinagar City on August 19, 2023. He was involved as a land broker in hatching criminal conspiracy with Government’s Revenue Authorities to facilitate transfer of Kashmiri Pandit migrant property in Srinagar City, valuing crores of rupees by forging a fake power of Attorney. The charge-sheet of the case was produced before the Court of law in March 2015 against 12 accused persons including the absconder Rasool DC. In the light of his continuous evasion, the court had issued an arrest warrant under Section 512 of the Cr.PC.

About 2500 kanals of Kashmiri Pandits’ land retrieved

 This development serves as a reminder that the law is steadfast and resolute in its pursuit of those who commit crimes, even if they attempt to evade justice for an extended period. While the authorities are determined to retrieve the land of Kashmiri Pandits, it was only in 2022 that Jammu and Kashmir government had retrieved about 2500 kanals of land owned by Kashmiri Pandit migrants that had been encroached upon or were the subject of a distress sale in Kashmir.

 Under Jammu and Kashmir Displaced Immovable Property Act, approved in 1997, the Government had in 2022 receivied 8000 complaints from Pandit families. Acting upon  such complaints, the authorities had reclaimed  2414 kanals of land from illegal encroachment, giving justice to 6500 people after over three decades.  In 1997, the then government had passed legislation to protect migrant properties in Kashmir against encroachment and distress sales. However, successive governments

did little to retrieve the encroached land. In 2021, the Jammu and Kashmir Government launched a web portal allowing Kashmiri Pandits to reclaim their abandoned properties

Migrants’ land still illegally occupied

Thanks to people like Rasool DC, the encroachment on the land belonging to Kashmiri Pandits has not as yet stopped nor has their encroached land retrieved.  Even in different places of Valley, health centres, schools, roads, hospitals, pump stations have either been constructed on displaced Pandits’ land or on the land of their religious places and shrines. Land mafias have let loose a reign of terror by forcibly occupying the left over migrant land to force the community to sell the same at throw away prices.Kashmiri Pandits have even moved the Courts to seek justice. It was in the light of the High Court direction in July 2022 that Justice M A Chowdhary passed directions on a petition filed by Mohan Lal Bakshi who contended that his land situated at Tarhama Pattan area of District Baramulla was in illegal possession of two persons–Nazir Ahmad Khan and Ghulam Hassan Khan of Tarahama, Pattan since from 1995 and the authorities have failed to act against them despite repeated requested by the aggrieved migrant. The Court during the proceedings of the case had observed that the District Magistrate, Baramulla, as guardian under the Migrant Act, was under a legal obligation to preserve and protect the migrant property and to save it from any encroachment or misuse by any other person.