A special CBI court in Panchkula has summoned former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Motilal Vohra in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) land case.
Both of them have been asked to appear before the CBI special court on January 3, 2019. The development comes after the CBI filed a chargesheet against Hooda and Vohra last week in connection with the alleged irregularities in the re-allotment of an institutional plot in Panchkula to the AJL, which is allegedly controlled by Congress leaders.
The central agency, which filed the chargesheet, has alleged that the re-allotment of the plot has caused a loss of Rs 67 lakh to the exchequer. 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.