After the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) decision of booking former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with the alleged irregularities in the land allotted to the Associated Journals limited (AJl), State Sports Minister Anil Vij on Thursday said it is an open case of corruption.
The CBI on Thursday registered a case against Hooda and others in connection with the alleged irregularities in the land allotted to the AJl in Panchkula in 2005.
While talking to the mediapersons, Vij said during their ten years tenure in Haryana, Congress leaders looted the State in order to appease party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The Sports Minister said the officials had tried stopping them from going against the rules in plot allotment case, yet the Hooda Government went ahead with the allotment.
"Their own law department stopped them stating that the plot cannot be given at the old amount but can only be auctioned. If the CBI has booked them, it is absolutely fair," he added.
The decision to hand over the probe to the CBI into the AJl case was taken last year by Manohar lal Khattar Government after receiving the report of Haryana Vigilance Bureau (SVB) which had in May last registered a case of cheating and corruption against former Chief Minister and then HUDA chairman Hooda.
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. When the Congress was voted to power in 2005, the then Chief Minister Hooda, then initiated the process of restoring the plot to AJl.
It had been alleged that Hooda-led Congress regime had bend rules to give 3,360 square metres land in Panchkula's Sector 6. The resumed plot was allegedly re-alloted to AJl at a price lower than the prevailing market rate, allegedly in contravention of rules. The prime land was allegedly sold at only about Rs 59 lakh while the price of land was about Rs 22 crore at the time of allotment in the year 2005. On the other hand, Bhupinder Singh Hooda has termed the CBI's move as "political vendetta" and said that everything was done as per the rules during his tenure.
Hooda is also under CBI scanner for alleged irregularities in allotment of 14 industrial plots in Panchkula when he was chairman of HUDA.
In May last year, CBI had lodged an FIR naming the then chairman HUDA and 14 beneficiaries of the plots. Raids were also conducted by the CBI at Hooda's residence in Rohtak and other places in cases related to land allotments last year.