Tehsildar at the Centre of Land Scam Storm: Crime Branch Targets Nusrat Aziz in Multiple Corruption Cases
Srinagar, July 17, KNT: In a chilling exposé of bureaucratic misconduct, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch Kashmir has trained its lens on Nusrat Aziz, a senior revenue official whose name has become synonymous with repeated, organized corruption in the Valley’s land administration. Currently under investigation in two high-profile land fraud cases, Nusrat Aziz, who served as the Tehsildar of Balhama, is alleged to have systematically abused her official position to engineer fraudulent mutations, distort land records, and facilitate the illegal transfer of property worth crores.
Crime Branch said that fresh searches were conducted today at multiple locations in Srinagar and Budgam districts, following the registration of FIR No. 14/2025 under Sections 167, 420, 120-B RPC read with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR names seven individuals, including Tehsildar Nusrat Aziz and Patwari Ashiq Ali, both of whom are accused of criminal conspiracy and orchestrated deception in collaboration with private land dealers.
The case that reopened the Pandora’s box of corruption began with a complaint from a woman who purchased 5 kanals and 4 marlas of land in Balhama for a staggering Rs 88.40 lakh, apart from giving away two more kanals of land in Rawalpora in exchange. The deal was formalized through three sale deeds, but the accused, including Mohammad Shafi Lone alias Shafi Cheeni, manipulated the documents by altering khasra numbers under the pretext of record updates. When the doctored sale deeds were returned, the complainant discovered that parts of her land had been fraudulently reassigned, paving the way for illegal occupation.
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The scheme didn’t stop there. A man named Riyaz Ahmad Bhat later forcibly occupied a significant portion of the land, claiming to have purchased it, ironically, from individuals who had no legal ownership over it. This takeover was made possible through false mutations inserted into the official revenue records, allegedly engineered by Tehsildar Nusrat Aziz and Patwari Ashiq Ali, thereby converting forged documents into state-backed instruments of dispossession.
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What makes this case more damning is that this is not the first time Nusrat Aziz has been implicated in such fraud. Crime Branch records reveal that she is also under investigation in FIR No. 08/2021, registered under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B RPC along with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, involving similar charges of forgery, cheating, and organized manipulation of land documents. That case, nearing completion, points to a well-oiled machinery of deceit and institutional corruption that has caused immense loss and trauma to common citizens in Srinagar and Budgam.
Sources within the investigating agency confirmed to the news agency Kashmir News Trust that Nusrat Aziz was not acting in isolation, but as part of a larger network of officials and private individuals who have colluded to loot land and undermine public trust in the revenue system. The fact that a serving Tehsildar has been named in multiple corruption cases raises urgent questions about accountability, administrative oversight, and political protection often enjoyed by such officials.
Victims, meanwhile, are left battling financial ruin and legal uncertainty. The woman whose complaint triggered the current case now finds herself fighting not just land-grabbers but the very system that was supposed to protect her rights. “What hope does a common person have when senior officers themselves engineer fraud? If Tehsildars can alter records at will, then nothing is safe,” said a family member of the complainant, visibly distraught.
As Crime Branch officials raided seven different premises today under court-issued search warrants, public demand for stringent action is growing louder. Many now believe that symbolic arrests and delayed prosecutions will no longer suffice. What Kashmir needs, they argue, is a thorough overhaul of the revenue machinery and a demonstrable commitment to clean governance.
Until then, cases like that of Tehsildar Nusrat Aziz will serve as harsh reminders of how corruption, when institutionalized, does not just bend rules, it breaks the lives of the powerless. [KNT]
