BSF commandant booked in arms license case

A commandant of the BSF has been booked by the CBI for allegedly aiding the force personnel get private arms licenses from sensitive Rajouri and Shopian districts in Jammu and Kashmir by using fake documents.

The agency has registered an FIR against the then commandant of the 131 battalion Sukhwinder Singh, owner of Nav Durga Gun House in Jammu, P K Sharma, and a retired district magistrate of Rajouri, Faquir Chand Bhagat, for conspiracy, cheating, violation of the Arms Act and corruption.

The FIR has been registered after a three-year-long preliminary enquiry initiated on the 2014 complaint of the then Additional Director General (operations) K K Sharma, now the chief of the BSF.

It is alleged that Singh abused his official position and arranged the meeting of Sharma, an ex-BSF constable, with jawans of the BSF and persuaded them to get private licenses in lieu of Rs 12,000 each from nine jawans in 2013.

None of these license applicants posted at the Frontier Head Quarter, Gandhinagar, in Gujarat belonged to Rajouri and Shopian from where the licenses were issued, the FIR alleged.

These licenses were allegedly issued on the basis of false and forged documents knowingly using them as genuine, the FIR alleged.

"In furtherance of the conspiracy, Faquir Chand Bhagat, the then District Magistrate, Rajouri by misusing his official position issued all the questioned arms licenses in violation of existing rules and procedure and without due verification prior to issuance of arms license on the basis of false and forged documents," it alleged.