Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The CBI Friday filed a chargesheet naming former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and 33 others, including top former officials, on charges of corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy linked to what the agency claimed was a multi-crore land scam near Gurgaon.
The chargesheet, which runs into over 80,000 pages including annexures, was filed in the court of Special CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh and claims that the accused allegedly caused a loss of over Rs 1,500 crore to landowners in the villages of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula in Gurgaon district.
Apart from Hooda, those named as accused include Murari Lal Tayal, then principal secretary to the CM; Chattar Singh, then additional PS to the CM; Sudeep Singh Dhillon, then director of the Town and Country Planning Department; Jaswant Singh, then District Town Planner; and private builders.
At least 23 companies belonging to private builders and others have also been named in the chargesheet.
Reacting to the chargesheet, Hooda told The Indian Express: “I have not seen the chargesheet, but nothing illegal was done. It’s a politically motivated move. We will argue in court at the stage of framing of charges. The CBI FIR was based on a report of the state vigilance. There was no preliminary enquiry but a regular enquiry by the CBI. Had the CBI lodged a PE, the case would have ended there itself.”
CBI had registered an FIR in the case on August 12, 2015, against all the accused at the Manesar police station under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and120-B of the Indian Penal Code and under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The FIR was registered on the request of the BJP government in Haryana, following allegations that private builders had conspired with government officials to purchase around 400 acres of land from farmers and landowners at throwaway prices.
It was alleged that the Haryana government issued a notification to acquire about 912 acres for setting up an industrial model township in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula. Later, the CBI claimed, a part of the land was allegedly grabbed by private builders under the threat of acquisition at throwaway rates between August 27, 2004 and August 24, 2007, when the Congress government under Hooda was in power.
Asked about the voluminous chargesheet, a CBI officer linked to the case said: “We packed all the documents in two small iron almirahs and produced both the almirahs in court. The documents included records of more than 912 acres of land, documents of sale and purchase of property, and other related documents.”
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