Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered Manesar land release on his own: CBI

The CBI has accused former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of ordering the withdrawal of acquisition proceedings for Manesar land despite no such recommendation by the industries department or Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC). “The then chief minister passed orders regarding the release of land on his own volition and there were no recommendations from the industries department for release of land,’’ the CBI chargesheet said. Hooda, however, could not be reached for comments on the issue.

The 600 acres being acquired by the Industries department for Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) since 2004 for creating residential and recreational utilities in Industrial Model Township (IMT), Manesar, was dropped from the acquisition proceedings in 2007. The CBI accused the former chief minister and his aides of dropping the acquisition proceedings to help real estate builders. It is alleged that the builders forced farmers to sell land at throwaway prices under the threat of acquisition.

The central agency in its chargesheet said the file was submitted to the state government for taking a decision on the representation of Delhi resident Naveen Rao. “Naveen Rao, who had purchased the land after the acquisition process started, had applied for a grant of licence for 12.50 acres in January 2007 to the director, town and country planning. Rao, Angelique International Ltd and owners of the land—Laxmi Narain, Satbir Singh, Rambir Singh, Hukam Chand submitted a joint representation on June 12, 2007 to commissioner ( industries) requesting for the release of about 68 acres from the acquisition process,’’ the chargesheet said.

The CBI said that the then Joint Director (IE, industries department) KS Josan categorically mentioned that the land acquisition collector (LAC) may be directed to announce the award on August 24, 2007. His recommendation was forwarded to the then financial commissioner (industries) Chhatar Singh who marked the file to the industries minister on August 23, 2007. “The industries department did not recommend the release of land of Naveen Rao and others,’’ the CBI said.

Hooda’s relatives had business interests in Manesar land: CBI in scam chargesheet

The forged representation

The investigation agency found that land owners Laxmi Narain, Satbir Singh, Rambir Singh and Hukam Chand who submitted a joint representation along with Naveen Rao denied having entered into an agreement with the latter or signing the joint representation on June 12, 2007. The CBI then got the handwriting experts of Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to examine the signatures of all those who signed the joint representation and found that signatures of Laxmi Narain, Satbir Singh, Rambir Singh and Hukam Chand had been forged. “The representation on which the order of dropping of acquisition proceedings was passed was a forged one and mentioned wrong facts.

CBI report in Manesar land scam. Few let off, made prosecution witnesses. Prosecution case weakened.

— Ashok Khemka (@AshokKhemka_IAS) February 19, 2018

The accused Naveen Rao and Virender Kumar Jain, the general manager of Angelique International Ltd, in connivance with each other had used a forged document as genuine,’’ the chargesheet said. Naveen Rao and Virender Kumar could not be contacted till the time of the filing of the report.