Guv gives sanction to prosecute Hooda
CHANDIGARH: Haryana governor Satyadeo Narain Arya has sanctioned the prosecution of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in a case related to the restoration of an institutional plot at Panchkula to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), publisher of the National Herald newspaper, at old rates.
The CBI had in October sought approval to prosecute Hooda. Under the amended Prevention of Corruption Act, the investigation agency has to obtain prior approval from a state government to prosecute a former public servant. Hooda was chief minister and chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) when the plot was restored to AJL at old rates in 2005. AJL, closely associated with the Congress, counts many party leaders among its directors.
The sanction to prosecute Hooda paves the way for the filing of a charge sheet against the former chief minister. It would be the second charge-sheet the CBI would be filing against Hooda. The first was filed earlier this year in a Manesar land matter. “The sanction has been communicated to the CBI,’’ an official said on condition of anonymity .
The CBI found that civil servants had no role in the allotment of the plot to AJL which they had opposed on the related file. HT had in 2016 reported that the BJP government of Haryana had wrongly named officials in the FIR registered by state vigilance bureau. The three officials named in the FIR had written on the file that a fresh allotment at current land rates can be made and that there was no merit in the AJL’s request for restoration of the land at old rates. Even the law secretary, in his opinion, said there can be no question of re-allotment or restoration of the plot to the same entity.
Although the officials had in writing opposed the restoration of the plot to the AJL, they were overruled by Hooda, who passed a verbal order to restore it. The 3,500 square metre plot was first allotted to the AJL in 1982, but taken over by the HUDA in 1992. The vigilance bureau in May 2016 booked Hooda and three officials.