Aryan Grover
A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Haryana, has ordered the framing of charges against Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the erstwhile Chief Minister of Haryana from the Congress party.
The allegations against Hooda are regarding the illegal allotment of a plot of land in Panchkula, Haryana, to Associated Journal Limited (AJL), the publisher of the National Herald newspaper.
An application filed by Hooda seeking discharge was dismissed and the court stated that the allegations against him were “specific”.
The court framed charges against Hooda and AJL, and Sushil Kumar Garg, special judge of the CBI court added, “Whether or not those allegations are true, is a matter which cannot be determined at the stage of framing of charges. Any such determination can take place only at the conclusion of the trial.”
An FIR had been registered in 2016 for the alleged offences that took place in 2005, during Hooda’s tenure as the Chief Minister.
The CBI argued that a 3,360 square metres institutional plot, situated in Sector 6 of Panchkula was allotted by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to AJL in 1982, but when construction was not carried out for 10 years, it was taken back in 1992.
AJL then filed appeal and revisions against resumption of the plot in 1995 and 1996, which were dismissed by the HUDA administrator and Haryana’s financial commissioner.
When Hooda became the Chief Minister in 2005, however, he allowed the re-allotment of the plot to AJL on old rates, thereby causing a loss of Rs. 62 lakhs to the government exchequer.
Hooda maintained that CBI could not show any “dishonest intention” on his part and that the re-allotment of the plot was merely an “error of judgement”, which might lead to only a civil claim.
The CBI court, however, observed that accused Motilal Vora (deceased) was also a veteran politician of the Congress party when it came into power in Haryana in 2005, and stated, “It is crystal clear that both accused belonged to the same party and M/s AJL is also associated with the Congress, one of whose objectives is to promote the party’s ideology.”