SRINAGAR: A week after former IAS officer Baseer Ahmed Khan was removed as advisor to J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday carried out a raid at his residence in an arms licence case. Sources said the CBI sleuths raided his residence in uptown Srinagar in the morning.
Baseer Ahmed Khan (IAS J&K batch 2001) was Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla when the arms licences were issued in the district. An influential bureaucrat, Baseer was Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, when the Centre scrapped J&K’s special status in 2019. He was appointed advisor to first Lt Governor of J&K Union Territory, Girish Chandra Murmu. After Manoj Sinha was appointed Lt Governor replacing Murmu, Baseer was appointed as his advisor. He was relieved of the post on October 4.
Sources said his removal was to pave the way for a CBI investigation against him. Apart from his residence, CBI also conducted raids at least over a dozen places. The CBI also searched the residences of Sajad Ahmed Khan (retired IAS), M Raju (IAS), Prasana Ramaswami (IAS), Nissar Ahmed Wani (KAS), MS Malik (KAS), Farooq Ahmed Khan (KAS) and Sanjay Puri, District Information Officer. “During searches, incriminating documents on issuance of arms licenses, list of beneficiaries, etc were recovered,” a CBI spokesperson said.