₹1,500-crore Gurgaon land scam: Role of two ex-IAS officers being probed, CBI tells court

PANCHKULA :The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is closely looking into the role of two retired Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers in ₹1,500crore Gurgaon land scam. The two — ML Tayal and Chattar Singh — served as principal secretaries to then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The agency made this statement before the CBI special court here, after the two filed applications for defreezing their bank accounts and lockers.The accounts were attached after a raid on their premises on September 3, 2016.

“…Chattar Singh had passed various orders for grant of licences/CLU (Change of Land Use) on behalf of Haryana CM (Hooda) after release of land by the government vide order dated 24.8.2007, while posted (as) additional PSCM (principal secretary to CM), to the private builders/colonisers, though these builders were not eligible for grant of licence/CLU,” the CBI submitted. Chattar Singh had later risen to the position of PS to CM.

The CBI added that three accounts of Chattar Singh — two in Delhi and one in Chandigarh — were freezed as per the procedure.

The CBI said it had no objec- tion to defreezing Chattar Singh’s accounts unless the balance is maintained as it was on September 3, 2016, when the search was conducted at his residence. The court is yet to decide the application.

However, earlier the court had defreezed two accounts of ML Tayal with the condition that the balance had to be maintained as it was on September 3, 2016. “The matter is being probed as to whether the assets of applicant (ML Tayal) are disproportionate or not and if the assets of the applicant are found to be disproportionate then the amount in the attached bank accounts of the applicant would be case property and thus the same is required to be preserved, lest the same may be frittered away by the applicant in the meanwhile,” said the CBI.

Tayal had submitted that he had no role in the alleged case and had merely recorded the orders of the then chief minister, whose orders were based upon the files submitted by the administrative secretaries of the departments concerned , as per the prevailing practice. Along with Tayal, the court had also defreezed accounts and locker of his wife, children and daughter-in-law. Their accounts were also attached after the raid. The locker had jewellery items and gifts.