ABW group bought 239 acres during farmers’ distress sale: CBI
PANCHKULA: The Central Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the ₹1,500-crore Manesar Land Scam revealed that a Gurgaon-based realty company ABW Group had brought a major chunk of the 400 acres of land that was sold by distressed farmers at throwaway prices to builders in connivance with the then Hooda government between 2004 and 2007.
“The group bought 239 acres through its parent company and 15 other associate firms. All of them now stand accused in this case,” said a CBI official in the know about the chargesheet filed in the special CBI court on Friday in which former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his aides and realty firms, including ABW group, have been charged with criminal conspiracy, fraud and corruption.
He said that rest of the land was bought in small chunks by 14 firms, which have also been named in the CBI’S exhaustive 80,000-page chargesheet along with the 34 accused.
ABW has yet not come out on record on CBI’S claims, even as its promoter Atul Bansal has been accused of colluding with Hooda government and others.
As per the chargesheet, the market value of the farmers’ land was close to ₹4 crore per acre but builders forced the farmers to sell them at meagre rate of ₹20-25 per lakh.
The scam pertains to misuse of the Land Acquisition Act. The state government in 2005 had announced to acquire 912 acres of land for facilities in the Industrial Model Township (IMT) in Gurgaon’s Manesar area. This led to distress sale of about 400 acres of land by farmers who feared measly compensation in the acquisition process.
The state government then dropped the acquisition process in 2007, against rules, in favour of these builders, who were then granted licences for housing and commercial development projects.
The chargesheet revealed that the private builders were not eligible for the grant of licences because they had purchased the land after the government’s acquisition notification.
The CBI officials said that the ABW group started developing a township on about 100 acres after getting the license from the Hooda government.
But it could not deliver the project to 1,976 allottees due to litigations as reported by HT on Friday.
Meanwhile as the Congress says Hooda is a victim of political vendetta, the ruling BJP’S senior leader and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta said that the CBI chargesheet exposed as to how Hooda collided with builders and looted farmers’ prime land in the name of government projects. Referring to Hooda’s upcoming Rath Yatra, he said Hooda should now prepare himself for ‘Jail’ Yatra.
THE MARKET VALUE OF LAND WAS CLOSE TO ₹4 CR PER ACRE BUT BUILDERS FORCED THE FARMERS TO SELL THEM AT ₹2025 PER LAKH