An eventful day for J&K Bank: Vigilance cracks whip to unveil ‘backdoor appointment scam’

Chairman removed; Corporate Headquarters raided by Vigilance team, R K Chibber new interim head; top vigilance officials say 1200 appointments during PDP-BJP regime

Srinagar: For the Jammu and Kashmir’s premier financial institution—J&K Bank, it was an eventful day on Saturday as the Governor Satya Pal Malik led administration cracked its whip on the head of the institution by ordering his removal and appointing a non-muslim face as the head of the institution.

“Parvez Ahmad, chairman-cum-managing director, shall cease to be director on the Board of Directors of the bank and consequently be no longer the chairman-cum-managing director of the board,” an order issued by Additional Secretary, Finance, Vishal Sharma said here, announcing the appointment of R K Chibber as the bank’s interim chairman and the managing director of the board of directors.”

The order triggered a storm in the headquarters as it came as a big surprise for all the staff members of the J&K Bank headquarters at Dalgate area of Srinagar who were on holiday as it was “second Saturday of the week.” “It is a total surprise for us,” a senior employee of the Bank told KNO.

In another surprising development, minutes after the removal of Parvez Ahmad as chairman of the Bank, state vigilance organisation sleuths raided the financial institution’s corporate headquarters here.

Top officials told KNO that the vigilance organisation was looking for records of nearly 1,200 appointments allegedly made at the behest of political masters of the previous PDP-BJP government in the state and during Ahmad’s tenure.

The sleuths raided the bank’s corporate headquarters at Dalgate here soon after the state government dismissed Ahmad and appointed Chibber. Ahmed was appointed in 2016 as the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. Reliable sources told KNO that an FIR vice number 10/2019 has been lodged and investigations launched.

Sources revealed that the Vigilance sleuths have seized some documents from the Bank chairman’s office and also from the office of Human Resource Section to collaborate the evidence about the backdoor appointments made during the PDP-BJP tenure. “Governor was kept in loop while conducting the raid on the JK Bank Corporate headquarters,” they said.

This is for the first time that the Vigilance conducted the raid on the State’s prestigious financial institution triggering a storm across Kashmir as to whether the Governor wants to take the reins of the all the premier institutions like State Road Transport Corporation, Handloom Corporation, State Finance Corporation, and State Forest Corporation. (KNO)