The CBI on Friday registered a new case against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with alleged land allocation irregularities case. The agency also carried out searches at 30 locations in Delhi-NCR.
CBI is conducting raids at various locations across Delhi-NCR in connection with a fresh case registered in alleged land scam matter involving former Haryana Chief Minister BS Hooda. pic.twitter.com/H6lWFZAed7
— ANI (@ANI) January 25, 2019
Search operations are also being carried out at CM Hooda’s residential premises in Rohtak in Haryana in connection with the ongoing case.
CBI is conducting a raid at the residential premises of former Haryana Chief Minister BS Hooda in connection with an ongoing case; More details awaited. https://t.co/H7yPi0MH1A
— ANI (@ANI) January 25, 2019
The agency is tight-lipped about the details of the case as the search operation is underway.
The case is understood to be related to alleged irregularities in land allotment, sources said. The CBI last year had filed a case against BS Hooda in a 1500 crore land scam.
The senior Congress leader and former CM was named in a major land deal scam. The charge sheet also involved 33 other names alongside Hooda. During the tenure of the Hooda led Congress government in Haryana it was alleged that he and the other accused had acquired over 900 acres of land in Manesar and nearby areas. The land acquisition scam is believed to have caused the farmers a loss of around 1500 crores.
In September 2016, the Enforcement Directorate had registered an FIR against Hooda and several others, including IAS officers and builders in connections with the same allegations. Following that in May last year, the ED had conducted raids in 10 different locations in Delhi and Haryana under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Based on that the ED proceeded to file a criminal complaint against Hooda and his associates in the scam.
Last month, the government had allowed Gurugram police to proceed against Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Robert Vadra in the alleged Gurugram land grab case.
Hooda government in 2008 had granted licences to Robert Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality for building a colony in Gurgaon simply on the ground that the director of the firm was a VIP and the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
In an FIR filed against Robert Vadra, BS Hooda and others in September 2018, by a resident of Gurugram named Surendra Sharma of the Rathiwas village it was alleged that Vadra’s firm, Skylight Hospitality had bought 3.5 acres of land in Shikohpur village (Now Sector 83) in Gurugram from one Omkareswar Property for 7.5 crores in 2008 and sold the land to DLF for a massive 58 crores in the same year costing the exchequer huge losses.
Robert Vadra apart from facing probe in land grab cases in Rajasthan has also been alleged of having close links with arms dealers. One of his close associates, Sanjay Bhandari had tried to partner with Dassault Aviation. But Dassault had refused his offer after learning about Bhandari’s association with Vadra.
Recently it was reported that the Enforcement Directorate had filed a fresh money laundering case against Vadra’s firm, Skylight Hospitality in connection with financial and other irregularities in land deals in Haryana’s Gurgaon in 2008.
Meanwhile, in another case, the Central Bureau of Investigation on December 1, had charge-sheeted former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, senior Congress leader Motilal Vora and Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in a case pertaining to re-allotment of an institution plot in Panchkula, Haryana.
According to the accusations, a plot of land in Panchkula was illegally re-allotted to AJL, which is controlled by senior members of the Gandhi family, including Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, through Young India Ltd.
