Keeping the Congress leadership on tenterhooks in the National Herald scam, the Enforcement Directorate on Friday booked former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, four officials of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) besides officials of Associated Journals limited (AJl), the publishers of the defunct newspaper, under the Prevention of Money laundering Act.
The ED registered the FIR for alleged swindling of money in connection with the controversial land allotment in Panchkula to AJl.
According to ED officials, the case was registered after the Haryana Vigilance Bureau took cognizance of offence under various provisions of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, in the process of land allotment to National Herald newspaper’s publisher during Bhupinder Hooda’s regime. It is learned that even though the FIR of ED did not name the officials of AJl, Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernadez and Sonia Gandhi’s trusted aide Suman Dubey would be summoned, as they are the main Directors of the AJl.
Vora, Fernadez and Dubey are already charged as accused in the main case of National Herald along with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. The petitioner Subramanian Swamy has already filed a complaint to the ED Chief for registering a case under PMlA against Sonia and Rahul for swindling of Rs.90 crore in the National Herald case, citing that the trial court has already taken cognizance of the offence.
The Vigilance Bureau had registered a case of cheating and corruption against Hooda and four officials, who were in HUDA for allegedly re-allotting a plot to AJl in Panchkula in 2005. Hooda was the then HUDA chairman, an ex-officio post held by him as the CM.
Officials said summons will soon be issued to the accused named in the ED FIR. Hooda termed the action as “political vendetta” and said there was no wrong doing.
The plot had been initially allotted to AJl in 1982. After the expiry of the lease period in 1996, then Haryana Vikas Party government led by Bansi lal took back its possession. It was re-allotted to AJl after the Congress came to power in 2005. The plot measuring 3,360 square metres is in the prime location of Sector 6 in Panchkula.
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 allotted again to AJl.