Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij today said that former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should be sent to jail for alleged irregularities in allotment of a plot in Panchkula to AJL, the publisher of National Herald.
"Hooda had himself signed the National Herald case file just to please his bosses, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Rahul Gandhi and Mr Moti Lal Vohra. This caused the state heavy financial loss," Vij told reporters here.
"Therefore, Mr Hooda should be put behind the bars," he said.
Notably, the Enforcement Directorate recently questioned senior Congress leader Motilal Vora and Hooda in connection with its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the allotment of the plot to AJL, publisher of the National Herald newspaper, in Panchkula in 2005.
The agency, early last year, had filed a criminal complaint and booked Hooda, AJL officials and others on charges of alleged money laundering, taking cognisance of a Haryana State Vigilance Bureau FIR.
The Vigilance Bureau had registered a case of cheating and corruption against Hooda and four officials of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for allegedly re-allotting a plot to AJL in Panchkula.
Hooda became the chief minister of Haryana when Congress had returned to power in the state in February 2005 Assembly polls.
He had recently termed the action as "political vendetta" and said there was no wrong doing.
Meanwhile, Vij said the Centre had put an end to the "VVIP culture" with its order on the removal red beacons from atop all vehicles.
"This would put an end to the VIP culture and plug the difference between common man and VVIPs," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)