The noose around former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda seems to have tightened further with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registering a money laundering case against him and others in
The noose around former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda seems to have tightened further with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registering a money laundering case against him and others in a case pertaining to the alleged irregularities in the acquisition of 400 acres of land, worth several crores, by the private firms in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurgaon in 2007.
According to sources, the ED has filed a criminal complaint against Hooda based on the CBI’s FIR, under which the probe agency conducted searches in Haryana and the national capital last week. The case has been registered by the ED under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). “The agency will soon issue summons to the accused and will also coordinate with the CBI sleuths probing this case”, sources said. The CBI in its FIR alleged that the land measuring about 400 acres whose market value at that time was above Rs 4 crore per acre approximately, totalling about Rs 1,600 crore, was purchased by the private builders from the innocent land owners for only about Rs 100 crore in 2007.
Mr Hooda was the chief minister of Haryana for 10 years from 2004 to 2014 and he was also holding the post of chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda). “Investigation by the CBI has revealed that private builders in conspiracy with certain public servants of Haryana government allegedly purchased around 400 acres of land from the land owners of village Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula near Gurgaon in Haryana at throwaway prices. It is alleged that the acquisition was ensured by threatening the farmers that the government was trying to acquire the land”, sources said.
In this process, initially, the Haryana government had issued notification 4, 6 and 9 of Land Acquisition Act for acquisition of land measuring about 912 acres for setting up an Industrial Model Township at Villages Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula in Gurgaon district, they added. An order was also passed by the competent authority i.e. the Director of Industries on August 24, 2007 releasing this land from the acquisition process and the land was released in violation of the government policy, in favour of the builders, their companies and agents, instead of the original land owners, they added.
The CBI also carried out searches at 24 premises linked to former Haryana CM, his close aides and former and current bureaucrats of the state government in connection with the case on Saturday. The raids were conducted in Rohtak, Gurgaon, Panchkula, Chandigarh and Delhi, and included Hooda’s residence and office.
