Retired judge, ex-babu among 59 booked for fraud

PANCHKULA: A retired Punjab and Haryana HC judge and former bureaucrat were among 59 people booked by Panchkula police on Tuesday evening for cheating in connection with the multiple allotment scam of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).

The cases were registered against them at the Sector-5 police station on the complaint of HUDA’s Panchkula estate officer Jagdeep Dhanda

As per the FIR registered under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC, Justice (retd) JM Tandon got one kanal plot allotted for himself at Sector 8 here and one in Faridabad.

The then former bureaucrat, RL Sudhir, who has earlier served as Haryana Tourism Corporation managing director, has been booked for double allotment, one in Panchkula and other in Faridabad.

Most of other allottees are from Chandigarh, and various other districts of Haryana, including Rohtak and Sonepat, and they had been allotted plots in Panchkula and then in other areas against the norms.

As per the complaint by Dhanda, all these allottees, who are booked, had got more than one plot in reserve or defence category by giving false affidavits, as identified by HUDA.

Sources in HUDA said the fresh FIRs are continuation of over 1,500 cases already registered against such allottees.

Many of the beneficiaries were, however, left out that prompted Punjab and Haryana HC to direct HUDA to book all beneficiaries of double allotment.

The scam was unearthed during the hearing of a bail plea of a Hisar resident, Col Dharam Singh Yadav (retd), against whom HUDA was initiating action for getting multiple plots.

He further submitted a list of defence personnel who also got the plots by submitting false affidavits. He further moved the HC saying he had been implicated. The HC then widened the scope of investigations.

Internal probe of HUDA reveals that numbers of beneficiaries are close to 2,000. The matter is subjudice in the HC.

Meanwhile, CM Dingra, a former official of Haryana irrigation department, is also charged for cheating for multiple allotments in Panchkula and Faridabad.

A Chandigarh resident, Satish Kumar, is among the accused for multiple allotment of plots in Panchkula.

former officer of Haryana PWD Kailash Nath Goyal and former official of legal affairs department BS Yadav are other accused booked in this case.

A former senior town planner, BP Sinha, is also named for getting plots in Panchkula as well as Gurgaon.

CASES HAVE BEEN REGISTERED AGAINST THEM AT THE SECTOR5 POLICE STATION ON THE COMPLAINT OF HUDA’S PANCHKULA ESTATE OFFICER JAGDEEP DHANDA