Former Hry CM, Motilal Vora get bail in AJL land allotment case

CHANDIGARH: A special Enforcement Directorate (Ed)court in Panchkula granted regular bail to former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress leader Motilal Vora in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) land allotment case on Wednesday. Special judge Jagdeep Singh fixed December 10 as the next date of hearing in the case, according to an advocate representing Hooda. He said the two Congress leaders were present in the court.

The ED had in August 2019 filed its first charge sheet indicting Vora and Hooda for alleged irregularities in the allotment of land to AJL in Panchkula.

A prosecution complaint was filed before a special court for the cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Panchkula near Chandigarh.

The agency, in its first charge sheet, named Vora, Hooda and AJL charging that they were “directly involved in the process and activity connected with the acquisition and possession of the proceeds of the crime”. Vora, a Rajya Sabha member, is a Congress general secretary.

Hooda has been Haryana chief minister for two terms between 2005 and 2014.

The money laundering case pertains to the alleged irregularities in the re-allotment of a plot, located in Panchkula, to AJL by the then Hooda government. Under the provisions of the PMLA, the ED has already attached the plot with estimated value of ~ 64.93 crore. The plot was allotted to AJL first in 1982. But the allotment was revoked by the estate officer of the Haryana Urban Development Authority by an October 1992 order because AJL had failed to comply with the conditions of the allotment letter, the ED had said.