Jammu Tawi, Jul 14: A Jammu court has directed the Crime Branch of police to produce the complete record relating to a complaint alleging large-scale irregularities in the handling of silver offerings at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine after a petitioner challenged the agency’s action taken report and pressed for registration of an FIR for a thorough investigation.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Jammu, asked the inquiry officer to appear with the entire record on July 29 and explain the action taken on the complaint, which alleges misappropriation and adulteration of silver offerings worth over Rs 500 crore.
Advocate Deepak Sharma, the complainant in the case, has challenged the Crime Branch’s action-taken report, contending that it fails to disclose if an FIR was registered or any detailed meaningful investigation was carried out into allegations involving nearly 20 tonnes of silver offerings by the devotees at the shrine.
“It was recently claimed that silver worth around Rs 550 crore had been received as offerings and that only Rs 20–30 crore worth was genuine, while the rest was fake or adulterated. For an ordinary person, that is extremely difficult to believe.
“Lakhs of devotees from across the country offer silver at the shrine. How can it be said that the offerings of lakhs of devotees from different places were fake?” Sharma told PTI.
He said the allegation becomes even more serious because the alleged fake silver was reported to contain ‘cadmium’, which he described as a highly toxic and tightly regulated metal.
“If we are expected to believe that lakhs of devotees purchased fake silver containing cadmium, it would also mean that countless shopkeepers across the country procured and sold cadmium-laden silver. That, in itself, raises very serious questions,” he said.
Sharma said these concerns prompted him to approach the Crime Branch on May 9, seeking a detailed investigation.
However, he alleged that no concrete action was taken and that he was not informed about the progress of his complaint, leaving him with no option but to move the court in the first week of June.
Pursuant to the court’s directions, the Crime Branch filed a status report stating that the complaint had been received, forwarded to the Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch, for approval, and thereafter transferred to another police authority.
Sharma has argued that this procedure is contrary to law, maintaining that the Crime Branch itself is a notified police station under a Home Department notification and that its Senior Superintendent of Police functions as the Station House Officer (SHO).
“The Crime Branch itself functions as a police station. Therefore, it was its statutory responsibility to register an FIR rather than shifting the responsibility to another agency,” Sharma said.
In the objections filed before the CJM, Sharma has contended that the status report is “wholly evasive, incomplete and non-speaking” as it does not disclose whether an FIR was registered, whether any preliminary inquiry was conducted, whether evidence was preserved or whether any investigating officer was assigned.
He has sought rejection of the report and directions for the registration of an FIR under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
The court has now directed the inquiry officer of the Crime Branch to appear on July 29 with the complete record and explain the action taken on the complaint, the lawyer said.
Sharma said the matter extends beyond alleged financial irregularities. “This is fundamentally a matter of faith.”
“When you say devotees offered fake gold or fake silver, you are directly casting doubt on their devotion and sincerity. I have seen people undertake immense hardships in devotion to Mata Vaishno Devi. There can be no greater insult to a devotee’s faith than to say the offering made to the divine Mother was fake,” he said.
He also claimed that this was not the first such instance, alleging that in response to an RTI application around two years ago, the Shrine Board had stated that a quantity of gold received as offerings was also found to be fake.
Reiterating his demand for a thorough probe, Sharma said that it is essential to uncover the truth. “Otherwise, every time such an issue arises, it will simply be said that the offerings were fake. I remain hopeful that the court will direct registration of an FIR so that a proper investigation can be carried out.”
