Ex-Haryana CM Hooda grilled for over 4 hours in land deal case

Chandigarh, July 25: The Enforcement Directorate today questioned former Haryana chief minister BS Hooda for over 4 hours in connection with Associated Journals Limited (AJL) land deal case.

Hooda was grilled in Chandigarh and his statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case.

Hooda is facing charges in connection with a money laundering case wherein land was acquired in the state "illegally" with alleged connivance of senior government functionaries and bureaucrats, reports quoted officials as saying.

Several farmers and land owners are alleged to have been cheated to the tune of about Rs 1,500 crore in the case. The agency had filed a PMLA case in the alleged land scam deal in September, 2016 on the basis of a CBI FIR.

The CBI FIR had alleged that initially the Haryana government issued a notification under the Land Acquisition Act (section 4) for acquiring land measuring about 912 acres for setting up an industrial model township. After this, all the plots had allegedly been grabbed from the land owners by private builders at meagre rates.

It was also alleged that an order was then passed by the the competent authority, which is the Director of Industries, on August 24, 2007 releasing this land from the acquisition process in violation of the government policy, in favour of the builders, their companies and agents, instead of the original land owners.

The CBI has alleged in its FIR that in this manner, land measuring about 400 acres, the market value of which at that time was above Rs 4 crore per acre, was allegedly purchased by the private builders and others from the innocent land owners for only about Rs 100 crore.