Bribery Traps, FIRs, Chargesheets Highlight Recurring Allegations of Abuse of Official Position in Srinagar Municipal Corporation
Srinagar, Aug 22, KNT: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) records show repeated corruption and illegal-construction cases involving officials of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) over many years, particularly concerning alleged bribery, abuse of official position, manipulation or misuse of building permissions, facilitation of unauthorized construction and alleged collusion with private beneficiaries.
A review of publicly available ACB records and reports shows that the issue is not confined to the latest arrest of an SMC Junior Building Inspector. The records contain a series of cases dating back more than a decade, with officials at different levels of the civic body facing FIRs, arrests, departmental action and chargesheets in separate matters.
The cases documented by the ACB largely revolve around the Corporation’s building-control and enforcement functions, where officials are alleged to have either accepted or demanded illegal gratification, failed to stop unauthorized construction, facilitated construction in violation of sanctioned permissions or conferred undue benefits on private parties.
In one of the earliest documented cases, an SMC Enforcement Officer, Ghulam Rasool Dar, was arrested in August 2014 while allegedly accepting a bribe from a person for allowing construction work to continue in the Bagiyas Chattabal area of Srinagar. Police said the officer had allegedly threatened the complainant with stopping the construction unless the bribe was paid. The incident prompted an internal inquiry into alleged corrupt practices involving other SMC officials as well.
The same year, two more SMC officials, Chowdray Mehrajudin Buja and Aamir Rashid, were arrested by the Vigilance Organization while allegedly accepting ₹65,000 in connection with allotment of shops at Al-Qadoos Market near Exhibition Crossing. FIR No. 39/2014 was registered against them, and the two were subsequently remanded to judicial custody.
The 2014 developments were followed by further allegations concerning the Corporation’s building-permission and enforcement system. In January 2016, a purported sting operation surfaced allegations against an SMC Ward Officer over an alleged demand for money to facilitate illegal construction. The report at the time said the Corporation had initiated action following the allegations.
In March 2017, the Vigilance Organization arrested five SMC officials in connection with FIR No. 7/2017. The arrested officials were identified as Enforcement Officer Muhammad Ashraf Warsi, Ward Officers Fayaz Ahmad Khan and Bilal Ahmad Baba, and Building Inspectors Urfan Hussain Joo and Bashir Ahmad Bhat.
The case concerned alleged connivance with the owner of Hotel Royal Arabia in permitting construction in violation of an approved building permission at Khayam Colony, including alleged conversion of an area approved for stilt parking into a restaurant and reception area and construction of a servant quarter without permission.
The March 2017 arrests also triggered a strike by sections of SMC employees. Contemporary reports noted that several other Corporation officials were questioned in connection with the investigation, while the then SMC Commissioner said employees found indulging in corrupt practices would have to face action.
Later that year, another SMC employee as per the news agency Kashmir News Trust Ghulam Mohammad Mochi, was arrested by the Vigilance Organization while allegedly demanding and accepting illegal gratification in connection with preparation of Aadhaar cards at SMC Ward Nishat. FIR No. 33/2017 was registered in the case.
The record subsequently moved into a new phase with cases registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau concerning allegedly fraudulent building permissions and unauthorized construction.
In January 2019, ACB registered FIR No. 04/2019 against SMC officials in connection with a building permission issued in the name of Ghulam Qadir Sofi, who had already died before the permission was issued. According to the ACB, officials including then Ward Officers Ab Salam and Ghulam Rasool Dar and Building Inspector Mohammad Yousuf were allegedly involved in a conspiracy that enabled construction of commercial structures in violation of a permission that had been issued for residential construction.
That investigation eventually resulted in a much larger chargesheet. In 2025, the ACB filed a chargesheet against 14 accused persons, including 11 SMC officials, one Revenue official and two private beneficiaries. The case concerned alleged illegal construction on State land at Barthana, Qamarwari, with the ACB alleging abuse of official position, criminal conspiracy and conferring undue benefit on private individuals.
Another significant case emerged in 2020 involving the Swachh Bharat Mission. ACB registered FIR No. 12/2020 against SMC officials and office-bearers of an NGO over alleged fraud and embezzlement of public money.
According to the ACB, an SMC engineering team had submitted a physical verification report stating that 218 individual household toilets and nine twin storage pits had been constructed. The Bureau alleged that none of the units had actually been constructed, yet ₹38.81 lakh was released to the NGO on the basis of the verification. The case named then SMC Executive Engineer Maroof Ahmad and Junior Engineer Javaid Iqbal Shah among the accused.
The same year saw another major building-permission case at Rajbagh. ACB registered FIR No. 11/2020 concerning construction of a four-storey commercial complex, Abdullah Shopping Plaza, which investigators alleged had been constructed under the cover of permission granted for a residential house.
The ACB alleged that SMC officials failed to stop the construction and delayed issuance of a demolition notice until after the structure had been completed. Searches were subsequently carried out at premises linked to several accused officials.
The investigation remained active for years before the ACB filed a chargesheet in April 2026 against five SMC officials and one private beneficiary. The officials included two Ward Officers, two Building Inspectors and the then Chief Executive Officer of SMC. The charges included alleged abuse of official position, criminal conspiracy and conferring undue benefit on a private individual.
In another 2020 case, ACB filed chargesheet against four SMC officials and seven private beneficiaries in FIR No. 24/2020 concerning six allegedly illegal structures in Jawahar Nagar, Gonikhan, Hari Singh High Street and Wazir Bagh.
The Bureau alleged that the structures had been raised without valid building permission in connivance with SMC officials. The chargesheet was subsequently presented before the Special Judge Anti-Corruption Srinagar.
The pattern continued into 2022 when ACB arrested SMC Ward Officer Mohammad Maqbool Bhat in a trap case. According to the Bureau, Bhat had allegedly demanded ₹50,000 from a complainant for allowing construction and accepted ₹20,000 as the first instalment.
FIR No. 33/2022 was registered and the accused was arrested on the spot after the alleged bribe amount was recovered in the presence of independent witnesses.
The episode was followed by departmental action, with five SMC officials being suspended in connection with the controversy surrounding the Ward Officer and alleged malpractices.
The latest phase has brought the Corporation’s building-enforcement mechanism back into focus.
On August 17, 2026, ACB filed a chargesheet against 10 accused persons, including seven SMC officers, in FIR No. 06/2023 concerning alleged illegal and unauthorized construction in Ward No. 28, Batamaloo, near Tiny Hearts School, Tengpora. The Bureau alleged abuse of official position, criminal conspiracy and conferring undue benefit on private beneficiaries.
Just two days later, on August 19, ACB registered another FIR against officials and beneficiaries over alleged illegal construction and encroachment at Rajbagh, Srinagar, showing that cases involving the Corporation’s regulatory functions remain active.
On August 20, the ACB then trapped and arrested Gazala Akhter, a Junior Building Inspector of SMC Ward No. 28, for allegedly demanding and accepting ₹10,000 from a complainant in connection with construction of two structures.
According to the ACB, the complainant had already obtained building permission, but alleged that the official was deliberately delaying and obstructing the construction in order to pressure him into paying the demanded amount. The tainted money was recovered from her possession and she was taken into custody.
The sequence has subsequently led to renewed attention within SMC to unauthorized construction and building deviations across its wards.
Taken together, the publicly documented chargesheets reviewed by the news agency KNT contain at least 28 SMC-official accused entries across five separate chargesheets: one involving 11 SMC officials, another involving five, a third involving four, the 2026 Batamaloo case involving seven, and the earlier 2017 bribery case involving an SMC employee.
Notably, the figure of 28 should not be interpreted as 28 different individuals, as the same official may appear in more than one case. A complete unique-person count would require matching the names across all FIRs, chargesheets and departmental records.
The arrest record that could be independently verified also spans different periods and types of allegations, including the 2014 arrest of an SMC Enforcement Officer, the arrest of two SMC officials in the 2014 shop-allotment bribery case, the five SMC officials arrested in the 2017 illegal-construction case, the 2017 arrest of an SMC employee in the Aadhaar-related bribery case, the 2022 arrest of an SMC Ward Officer and the latest arrest of the Ward 28 Junior Building Inspector.
The record, therefore, does not establish that corruption is prevalent among all SMC employees. It does, however, establish a repeated pattern of corruption allegations and formal anti-corruption proceedings involving officials of the Corporation over an extended period, particularly in areas connected with building permissions, construction enforcement and dealings with private beneficiaries.
The repeated nature of the cases also raises questions about the effectiveness of the Corporation’s internal checks, monitoring of building violations and mechanisms for preventing officials from allegedly using regulatory powers to facilitate unauthorized construction or seek illegal gratification.
While the ACB investigations and chargesheets represent serious allegations, the accused persons remain entitled to due process and the cases are subject to judicial determination. [KNT]
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