The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted multiple raids in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the ongoing investigation into the fake arms license racket in which several top officers, including some IAS, of the union territory government were allegedly involved.

ED officers accompanied by CRP and police raided several houses of gun manufacturers, officers and others in the Gandhi Nagar, Trikuta Nagar and other localities of the UT.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already taken up the probe into fake licences of arms and weapon owners and dealers. The ED has now joined hands with the premier investigation agency.

Sources confirmed that two arms dealers have been nabbed by the agency and taken into custody for further questioning. “Some bureaucrats are under the scanner in Jammu in too,” they added.

Earlier, the CBI conducted extensive raids in Jammu and Kashmir in connection to cases of alleged issuing of fake firearms licenses to ineligible people. The premier probe agency said that ‘bulk issuance of arms licenses’ in Jammu and Kashmir between 2012 and 2016 witnessed over 2.78 lakh arms licenses issued to ‘non-entitled persons’. Multiple probes carried out through the years have indicated the role of certain ammunition dealers who ‘in connivance with public servants had allegedly issued such illegal arms licenses’.

An advisor of the Governor who earlier was an IAS officer was a few months ago sacked after his name is reported to have surfaced in the “fake” gun license scam that is being investigated by the CBI.

The scam pertains to alleged issuance of more than 2.78 lakh arms (gun) licenses to non-entitled persons between 2013 to 2016. CBI has also collected documents about the issuance such arms licenses in over 22 districts of the erstwhile state of J&K. Several IAS and JKAS deputy commissioners and other officials were reportedly involved in the scam.

The Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and Madhya Pradesh Police had initially unearthed the scam in 2017 and had arrested over 50 people, including an IAS officer, for their alleged involvement in the illegal issuance of arms licenses. According to Rajasthan ATS, over 3,000 permits were granted allegedly in the name of Army personnel.

The CBI had recently raided in Jammu and Srinagar houses of many serving and retired bureaucrats in connection with the scam.