ED registers case against Ex-Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda

New Delhi, July 22: Former chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda could be in deep trouble soon as a case has been registered against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Reportedly the Enforcement Directorate on Friday registered a case against Hooda and Associated Journal Limited (AJL) on the charges of disproportionate land allotment case.

According to an ANI report, when Hooda was the Chief Minister of Haryana(2005), he allegedly allocated the land to Associated Journal Ltd in Panchkula under wrong terms.

It is being alleged that Hooda re-allocated land to AJL, the publisher of National Herald newspaper on the 1982 rate, causing Rs. 65 lakh loss to the exchequer.

In May this year, CBI had registered a case for alleged irregularities in allocation of industrial plots at Panchkula when Hooda was the chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority.

According to FIR filed by the CBI, industrial plots were given to 14 people by allegedly manipulating certain provisions of allotment which included allowing them to submit their applications even after the last date of submission ended.

Story of financial bungling

The plot had been initially allotted to AJL in 1982. After the expiry of the lease period in 1996, then Haryana Vikas Party goverment led by Bansi Lal took back its possession.It was re-allotted to AJL after the Congress leader came to power in 2005.

The Vigilance Bureau had alleged that the act by the then HUDA chairman and the officials had caused a huge financial loss to HUDA as the plot should have been sold through open auction instead of being alloted again to AJL.

A separate FIR had been lodged in December last year by the state vigilance bureau against Hooda as the then chairman and chief administrator of HUDA for alleged irregularities in allotment of industrial plots in Panchkula three years ago. Hooda had then said that no rules had been violated in the allotment.

Opposition parties in Haryana had sought registration of a criminal case in the matter for alleged illegal re-allotment of land in Panchkula from the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government.

In a missive to the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition Abhay Chautala had said a plot measuring 3,360 square metres in the prime location of Sector 6 in Panchkula was reallotted to the Associated Journals Ltd on June 29, 2005.

However, soon after Congress was voted to power in 2005, Hooda initiated the process of restoring the plot to AJL on a representation made on its behalf by one of the trustees, Chautala had claimed.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)