Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora were on Thursday granted bail by a Panchkula CBI court in a case pertaining to alleged illegal re-allotment of land to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) in Panchkula in 2005.
Both Hooda and Vora were granted bail by CBI judge Jagdeep Singh on furnishing a bail bond of Rs five lakh each, said their counsel Abhishek Rana while talking to the mediapersons.
The Congress leaders were handed over copies of charge-sheet filed against them by the CBI. Rana said.
The next date for hearing in the case has been fixed for February 6.
The CBI had in December last year filed charge-sheet against Hooda, Vora and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), publisher of the National Herald newspaper, in special CBI court in Panchkula, for the alleged illegal re-allotment of land.
The charge-sheet was filed in the CBI court under sections 120 B and 420 of IPC and Sections 13 (I) (d) read with 13 (2) of prevention of corruption act.
The CBI has charged the then Haryana Chief Minister Hooda, who was also the chairman of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the then chairman of the AJL, Vohra, and the company under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections related to criminal conspiracy and the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In the chargesheet, the CBI has alleged that the AJL was allotted a plot of land in Panchkula in 1982, on which no construction took place till 1992. The HUDA had subsequently taken back the possession of the plot.
The same plot was re-allotted to the AJL at its original rates in 2005 by allegedly violating the laid down norms by the then HUDA chairman, Hooda, the CBI chargesheet alleged.
The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has also attached under the anti-money laundering law the plot of land in Panchkula that was allotted to AJL.