The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a provisional attachment order for a Panchkula plot, which former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, illegally allotted to Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

The ED, in a statement, said that Hooda misused his official position and allotted the plot in the guise of re-allotment at an under-valued price to the AJL, a group that runs the National Herald newspaper.

The property has been attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED stated that the value of the plot was rupees 64 crores 93 lakh rupees but Hooda gave it away for rupees 59 lakh 39 thousand rupees.

The central probe agency said that its re-allotment in Panchkula's Sector -6 in 2005 benefited AJL.

The CBI had taken over the investigations in the case and registered an FIR, on the basis of which the ED filed a PMLA complaint in the case in 2016. Criminal FIRs were also filed by the state vigilance bureau.

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