Panchkula CBI court frames charges against Bhupinder Singh Hooda, 38 others

Bhupinder Singh Hooda

On the orders of the special CBI court in Panchkula, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his then principal secretary M L Tayal and 37 others have been charged for corruption, criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct by a public servant in the multi-crore Manesar land scam case.

The CBI’s case before the court is that Hooda, Tayal and others deliberately allowed land acquisition proceedings in Gurgaon’s Manesar, Naurangpur and Laukhnoula — which began in 2004 — to lapse thus allegedly benefitting private players.

According to the CBI, soon after issuance of notification for land acquisition, the land owners were approached by private entities and forced to sell their land in panic as they were told that the government was going to buy their land at cheaper rates. The government authorities, which abandoned the acquisition proceedings later in 2007, also processed “in illegal and arbitrary manner” the applications made by the same builders for grant of licences and CLUs. As per the CBI, this action caused huge loss to the state as well as the land owners and wrongful gain to the private entities.

The court, in December 1 order made public Friday, also took cognizance of the involvement of other officers, who were not named as accused by the CBI but were cited as witnesses in the chargesheet.

It has summoned senior IAS officer Rajeev Arora, currently serving as ACS Home, under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and ordered him to face trial in the case. Rajeev was Managing Director, HSIIDC from 2005-12.

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