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VOTER CARD SCAM
5 revenue officials quizzed
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, May 12
The Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) has called five revenue officials, including a retired naib-tehsildar, for questioning after militants allegedly procured Election Commission (EC) identity cards from the revenue office at Thannamandi to travel freely in the state.

The counter-intelligence wing of the criminal investigation department (CID) is investigating the missing of 64 EC I-card from the office of tehsildar Thannamandi in which they are questioning five officials,including a retired revenue officer identified as Muhammad Latief Wani (retired naib tehsildar), Mehmood-ul-Hassan (the then election assistant, Thannamandi) at present posted election naib tehsildar, Poonch, Yasir Qureshi (then junior assistant), Ghulam Nabi (then girdawar) and Muhammad Shafi (girdawar).

The EC I-card scam came to the fore after two of these cards bearing serial Nos. JK 83-095786 and JK 83-095801 were seized from Pakistan-based Lashkar militants Abdul Majeed and Mohammad Jameel arrested from here.

The duo from Karachi had revealed that a local guide in alleged connivance with some revenue officials managed EC identity cards for them.

During investigation,the police had discovered that another 62 voter ID cards are also missing.

Sources said even the previous deputy commissioner in his report had mentioned that 64 EC I-cards were missing and these might have been procured by some foreign militants to become de facto citizens. But the DC's report submitted to the Election Commission had failed to identify the black sheep in the Revenue Department responsible for providing the cards to the militants, the sources added.

Deputy commissioner, Rajouri, Sheikh Rafiq, who also is district election officer, confirmed that five revenue officials had been called by counter-intelligence wing of the CID for questioning in the fake voter I-card scam.