Court asks CBI for status report on probe against Hooda, officers

PANCHKULA: A special CBI court has sought a status report from the investigating agency on the probe pending against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former IAS officer TC Gupta and others in the Gurugram land release case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is to submit the report by October 18.

The court of special CBI judge Sushil Kumar Garg has also communicated with the CBI director for expeditious completion of investigation in the case.

The court said a case was registered against Hooda and others on January 23, 2019, and a chargesheet was filed by the CBI against three public servants along with an accused company on January 4, 2021. The court said that perusal of case diary showed that the investigating officer had just recorded the statement of one Ramesh Sanka and not conducted any further probe in the case (M/s Commander Realtors Pvt. Ltd and others.

“Further investigation is pending against the accused BS Hooda, TC Gupta and others. He (the investigating officer) has also categorically admitted in his statement that due to paucity of time, he was unable to conduct further investigation as he was busy in investigation of some other cases,” the court said.

The court also made it clear

INVESTIGATING AGENCY TOLD TO FILE REPORT BY OCTOBER 18

that paucity of time due to other cases is not a ground for not conducting further probe in cases pertaining to former and sitting MPS and MLAS.