New Delhi, Feb 16 (UNI) Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday said that it has filed a ‘Prosecution Complaint’, which is equivalent to a charge sheet, in the Panchkula Industrial Plot Allotment Scam against 22 accused under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 before the Special Court for PMLA cases at Panchkula.

This case pertains to the allocation of 14 Industrial plots worth Rs 30.34 crore to the acquaintances of the then Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the year 2013.

The central financial probe agency began its investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the State Vigilance Bureau of Haryana on December 19, 2015.

This case was taken over the CBI and a fresh case was registered on May 19, 2016 under sections of 120-B, 201, 204, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC, 1860 and section 13 of the PC Act, 1988 for alleged illegal allotment of 14 industrial plots in Phase-one and two an1 and 2 of Panchkula.

The investigation revealed that as a result of criminal conspiracy, the then Haryana Chief Minister who was ex-officio Chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), four retired IAS officers and other office bearers of HUDA at Panchkula, illegally benefited pre-selected acquaintances of the then Haryana CM by allotting them 14 Industrial Plots denying allotment to more worthy applicants.

Apart from Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the four retired IAS officers namely, Dharam Pal Singh Nagal, the then Chief Administrator, HUDA, Surjit Singh, the then Administrator of HUDA), Subhash Chandra Kansal,the then Chief Controller of Finance, Narinder Kumar Solanki, the then Zonal Administrator of Faridabad Zone and other HUDA officials and all the 14 allottees and beneficiaries of the Industrial Plots Allocation case have been involved in the commission of the offence of Money Laundering, an official in the probe agency said.

“It has come out during the investigation that the price fixed for the subject allotment were kept four to five times below circle rate and seven to eight times market rate. The criteria for allotment was altered 18 days after the last date of application and when all the applicant data was in possession of HUDA”, the ED officials said.

Criteria was altered in such a way to favour the pre selected applicants by increasing the discretion at the hands of the interview committee. The entire interview process was vitiated and compromised as no formal record of marks allocation was kept and the worthy applicants were driven out of merit and applicants who were closely connected to Bhupender Singh Hooda, in terms of his personal capacity and also in terms of the political party he belongs to, were allotted these plots, the officials added.

All 14 industrial plots stand attached as per the provisions of PMLA, 2002 by Enforcement Directorate in August 2019 and the attachment was confirmed by the PMLA Adjudicating Authority in February 2020, the ED said in a statement, adding that the further investigation in this case is under progress.

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