Azad for CBI probe into forest scam

SRINAGAR: Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday announced that he would go for CBI investigation in forest exploitation case pertaining to a particular period.

Mr Azad said nobody, including his kiths and kin and the ministers, would be speared if involved in corruption cases. “I would not oblige them (those who have already been indicted) by handing over the entire case to the CBI but cases pertaining to eighties and nineties would go to the CBI,” the CM said in Srinagar.

Azad said corrupt elements, especially those who faced action since he launched his campaign against corruption, have ganged up against him and were trying to intimidate him by dragging the name of his relations into the scam “Media has been supportive to my government’s campaign against corruption but they seem to have fell victims to the conspiracy hatched by the corrupt”, Mr Azad added.

His request to media to stay away from the “conspiracy” came almost at the same time when his advocate general Altaf Naik was pleading before the High Court that the trial in forest case be restricted from media. Mr Naik appeared before the court in twin cases that have Mr Azad as respondent. Only in one case the court has granted him the concession from personal appearance. “Everybody knows that I have left my home (ancestral in Doda) 41 years back. I do not live with my brothers,” said Mr Azad.