New Delhi: In a Gurugram land grab and money laundering case worth over Rs 1,500 crore, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday attached properties worth over Rs 281 crore. The total attachment in the case, in which former Congress CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda is one of the accused, has crossed Rs 390 crore. Three chargesheets have also been filed in the case so far.
The land scam in Manesar, Gurgaon is related to an acquisition order issued by the Haryana government in 2005 when Hooda was the CM. The notification was issued for acquisition of 912 acres for setting up a model industrial township in Manesar and other villages in Gurugram district.
“A large number of land owners, in haste, had to sell about 400 acres of their land at throwaway price to private builders and thereby caused a wrongful loss of Rs 1,500 crore to the land owners of village Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula in Gurugram,” a senior ED official said.
The agency claimed that the land was later “freed from compulsory acquisition by the state government as a result of conspiracy by politicians, bureaucrats and private builders” causing huge loss to the landowners and exchequer.
A prosecution complaint (chargesheet) and two supplementary chargesheets have already been filed by the agency in this case where it has accused private builders of making wrongful gain by conspiring with public servants. It accused the then political establishment of collusion with the builders for the release of land and fraudulently issuing licences.
Most of the land was purchased by a group of companies controlled by Atul Bansal, according to ED. “After obtaining licences, Bansal had fraudulently sold the licenced/unlicensed land and licences to the private developers, thus making huge profit,” ED had claimed.
In the fresh order, ED has attached Bansal’s stakes in Dove Infrastructure Pvt Ltd worth Rs 109 crore; Business Bay Project of Seriatim Land & Housing Pvt Ltd worth Rs 78 crore; flats and FDR; Rs 25.53 crore refunds from HSIIDC and 20 acres of land and 20 flats in Frontier Home Developers worth about Rs 52 crore.