RELIEF FOR OFFICERS

Three IAS officers against whom a criminal case was registered first by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau and then the CBI regarding the restoration of an institutional plot to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald, heaved a sigh of relief last week. Even as they opposed the move to restore the plot to the AJL in writing, the three bureaucrats – two of them have retired since – were booked along with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. When the CBI recently sought sanction to prosecute Hooda, it became clear that the officers have been given a clean chit by the agency. However, there could be more to it. The officers absolved by the CBI could now figure among the prosecution witnesses when it files a chargesheet in a court.