SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir DGP Nalin Prabhat, a 1992-batch Andhra Pradesh-cadre IPS who was sent from Centre on a deputation to the border state, was on a property buying spree with his wife and son, zeroing-in on a Rs 10-crore land in the holiday-destination Manali in Himachal Pradesh as recent as December 2024.
Prabhat is under scrutiny after Kashmir was ravaged by one of the deadliest attacks after Pakistan-sponsored terrorists sprayed bullets in snow-clad Pahalgam, snuffing out 27 innocent lives – all visiting tourists from various parts of India — last week.
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Prabhat’s property records — that have been shared with the ministry of home affairs (MHA) as a mandatory disclosure — mention that he purchased a 8-bigha agricultural land in Phathi Baruah Kothi in Manali tehsil of Kullu district just four months ago.
The property is mentioned as “unirrigated, agricultural land” for a prohibitive financial transaction of Rs 9.6 crore, a staggering stamp duty of Rs 76 lakh and registration fee of Rs 19 lakh, taking his Himachal Pradesh property value to be more than Rs 10 crore.
While the transaction was completed on December 16, 2024, Prabhat’s records say he intimated the MHA on November 2024.
He took charge as J&K DGP just in October 2024.
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The Manali property has been jointly registered by his wife Poonam Prabhat and son Ahaan, with 50% share, say the records. It has been purchased from one Suryaveer Singh Rathore in Kangra.
The records also reveal that a year ago, Nalin Prabhat bought another plush bungalow no. 77 in the prime neighbourhood Sector 5 of Chandigarh that drilled a deep hole into his pocket, leaving him poorer by Rs 26.23 crore in 2023, in what may be touted as one of the most expensive deals by an IPS officer in the recent history.
This property has a joint ownership of three people — DGP Nalin Prabhat himself (33.33%), wife Poonam (33.33%), Arhan (33.33%).
During this transaction, Prabhat was serving in the paramilitary force CRPF.
Prabhat has shown this transaction as a purchase from a family of one Sudhir Dhingra, who in turn are shown as residents of DLF Golf Links in Aralias in Galleria in DLF Phase -4 in Gurgaon.
This colossal amount to buy the sprawling Chandigarh bungalow has come from a Uttam Nagar-based family in Delhi, Prabhat’s records reveal.
“This property has been acquired from the advance received from Vijay Bansal in Gulab Bagh, Uttam Nagar, West Delhi…” his declaration states.
It doesn’t specify how he met Bansal, an Uttam Nagar resident of Delhi, or how Bansal was convinced by him to pay for three agricultural chunks in Zirakpur — a bustling neighbourhood in Punjab’s Mohali — owned by Prabhat or how the evaluation was found to to be worth Rs 21.28 crore, Rs 6.9 crore and Rs 35 lakh each.
Two out of the agricultural land chunks, that Bansal bought from DGP Nalin Prabhat, have been shown as ancestral property left to him by his grandfather D S Mohi and transferred to him and his son Ahaan.
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The entire amount, Prabhat received from Bansal, used to buy the posh Chandigarh sector 5 bungalow.
Prabhat’s expenditure list also reveals how he blew up the money on decorating his Chandigarh sector 5 home in 2023 while he was serving in the insurgency-hit Kashmir.
“Besides, permission for an approx expenditure of Rs 1.8 crore for additions and some alterations of this house was…(SIC),” he states.
Apart from these transactions, JK DGP has also shown a Rs 2.35 crore land chunk in Zirakpur from his mother Archana Mohi in 2021, a Rs 37-lakh flat in Motia’s Royal Oasis bought by him in Zirakpur in 2013, a Rs 9-crore bungalow inherited from his father D S Mohi in 2015 and Rs 25 lakh house in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.
Among all these transactions, DGP Prabhat has shown his monthly salary to be a paltry remuneration of Rs 2,24,100.
Queries sent to Prabhat were unanswered till the time of filing this report.