CBI case against Hooda for illegal plot allotment
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday registered a case against former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who happened to be Chairman of HUDA in 2012 when allotments of plots were made in Panchkula to his relatives and known persons of housing authority officials.
Those named alongwith Hooda in the FIR include former HUDA officials… chief administrator of DPS Nagal (retired IAS), SC Kansal – chief financial controller, BB Taneja – deputy superintendent, and other illegal beneficiaries.
CBI is likely to soon question Hooda in the case.
The present BJP state government led by Manohar Lal Khattar had initially probed the matter and handed over the probe to CBI in December last year. While recommending a CBI probe, the state attorney general had stated, “There is sufficient evidence that near and dear ones of the then former chairman HUDA (Bhupinder Singh Hooda) were directly benefited due to the changed criteria/allotment process, which had been changed at his level.”
After registering a case on Saturday, CBI carried out raids in several cities including Delhi, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Rohtak.
CBI says that 14 industrial plots in Panchkula were illegally allotted to private persons, mostly relatives of Hooda and HUDA officials.
“The changes were made in the crack area specifications after the last date of submission of application, which was January 6, 2012. The Hooda government and HUDA officials made the changes in the process on January 24, 2012 to benefit their relatives,” said an official. Agency adds that prices of plots given to their kins were much lower than the market rate and HUDA didn’t constitute the mandatory committee to decide the beneficiaries, which resulted in loss to the exchequer.
The beneficiaries have been identified as Nandita Hooda (wife of former additional AG), Manjot Kaur, a relative of a former Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge; Renu Hooda, Hooda’s relative; Colonel OP Dahiya, Raman Kansal, Ashok Verma and four others – Sidharth Bhardwaj, Dagar Katyal, Kanwar Preet Singh Sandhu, Aman Gupta, all relatives of Hooda’s close associates.
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