Haryana Government is likely to recommend an enquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation into the illegal allotment of 3,360 square metres plot in Panchkula’s upscale Sector 6 to Associated Journals ltd (AJl) by previous Congress Government in the State.
Haryana Cabinet Minister Ram Bilas Sharma on Monday said that a departmental inquiry into the matter has been completed and it has found that the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress regime had bent rules to give 3,360 square metres land in Panchkula’s Sector 6 to AJl a decade ago.
The State Government is likely to recommend an inquiry by CBI or an independent agency into the matter, said the Minister while addressing a press conference here.
Chief Minister Manohar lal Khatter earlier in the day had said that the departmental inquiry is being conducted in the matter of the National Herald, after which appropriate action would be taken.
The Education cum Tourism Minister Ram Bilas Sharma alleged that all the work related to mutuation, possession etc was done in a day’s time to allot the land to AJl illegally by former Chief Minister Hooda.
The Minister said that the Hooda has himself signed the file of allotment. The prime land was sold at only about Rs59 lakh while the price of land was Rs22 crore at the time of allotment in the year 2005. “The departmental inquiry into the matter has been completed and found many irregularities in the allotment process,” he added.
Hooda, who became Chief Minister in March 2005, got a letter from senior Congress leader and AJl chairman Motilal Vora on June 29, just over three months after the Congress came back to power in the state after a gap of nine years, seeking re-allotment of the land to AJl.
Hooda had not only over-ruled legal advice but his government showed unprecedented pace in ensuring that the AJl, which had close links to the Congress, got the prime land back.
National Herald newspaper is in the midst of a national controversy following a court case in New Delhi against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi and their close aides alleging that properties and assets of AJl worth hundreds of crores were transferred in a dubious manner to a company in which the Gandhi family had a major stake.
After the land was re-allotted to AJl, construction on it was completed in the next few years. However, the Navjivan newspaper, which was supposed to “serve huge public interest” in the “prestigious town of Panchkula”, is yet to see light of the day.
Meanwhile, the former CM Hooda, on his part, has defended his action in 2005 in re-allotting the land to AJl saying that there was no wrong-doing and everything was done as per procedure.
last week, the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau had registered a criminal case against Bhupinder Singh Hooda and several others in the Panchkula industrial plot allotment case - referring to him not by name but only as former chairman of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) in 2012-13.
The Vigilance Bureau had registered the FIR on the directions issued by incumbent CM Manohar lal Khattar. The State Government has also recommended an inquiry by an independent agency into the matter.