Manesar land scam: CBI files charges against Hooda, 33 others
PANCHKULA: Senior Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, three of his former aides, and a number of real estate firms were charged on Friday with criminal conspiracy, fraud and corruption by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a decadeold case alleging a land scam in Manesar and other villages in Gurgaon.
The 80,000-page document names ML Tayal, who was principal secretary during the Hooda regime (2005-09); Chhatar Singh, who was then an additional principal secretary and also served on the UPSC ; and SS Dhillon, the then director for town and country planning, among the 34 accused. All three are sinceretired IAS officers.
The scam, said to be worth ~1,500 crore, is about misuse of the Land Acquisition Act. The charge sheet says the state government in 2005 announced the acquisition of 912 acres of land for facilities in the Industrial Model Township (IMT), Manesar. It claims that this led to distress sale of about 400 acres to builders by farmers who were worried that the government would pay them next to nothing for the land. The government scrapped its plans to acquire the land soon after, says the chargesheet, leaving the builders with the land. It subsequently granted licences for housing and commercial development to them.
After coming to power in the state in 2015, the BJP government ordered a CBI probe. Investigators who asked not to be named said the chargesheet accuses Hooda of conspiring with his aides and realtors operating in Delhi and Gurgaon — among them Atul Bansal, director of ABW Infrastructure Limited, who was allegedly the biggest beneficiary — to cause loss to the landowners and benefit private firms. Besides Bansal, over a dozen realtors are on the list of accused, besides Jaswant Singh, the then district town planner.
CBI judge Jagdeep Singh on Friday directed the agency to submit documents related to chargesheet, which was brought to court in two cupboards, to be submitted by February 26.
Hooda said the case is politically motivated: “Nothing wrong was done by my government.” Tayal said he had “no role in this matter at any stage except recording the orders of CM which I did in discharge of my duties”: “We trust the court and will be able to establish our innocence.” Dhillon said he never worked in the department concerned: “I did not grant a single licence to builders during the acquisition process. I am unable to comprehend why I have been named by CBI.”
Jaswant, who retired as chief town planner, said, “The town and country planning department was nowhere in the picture regarding the acquisition.”
Chhatar, who held charge of the department of industries that sent the file to Hooda at the time, could not be contacted.
Realtor Bansal’s phone was out of reach. “We haven’t seen the chargesheet yet and do not know what charges are levelled. We will decide on the course of action after seeing the documents”, said Ravi Shankar Mandlay, a director of ABW Infrastructure.