Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday termed the CBI raids at his Rohtak residence as “political vendetta” and said that he has complete faith in the judiciary.
The CBI on Friday registered a fresh case against the two-time former CM Hooda and several others in connection with the alleged irregularities in allotting over 1,417 acres of land during 2009-12 in Gurugram.
Apart from Hooda, the agency has booked Trilok Chand Gupta, the then Chief Administrator, HUDA and Director of the Urban Estate Town and Country Planning, and others, including 15 private builders, on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, pecuniary advantage and criminal misconduct.
Raids were carried out at over 20 places in Haryana, Delhi and Punjab including Hooda’s residence in Rohtak.
Reacting to the CBI raids, Hooda, while talking to the mediapersons at his Rohtak residence said, “It’s nothing but political vendetta. They want to suppress my voice and defame me. But they will not succeed.”
“I am from a family of freedom fighters, even the British could not suppress us,” he added.
The CBI’s raid at Hooda’s residence came barely hours before he was to travel to Jind in Haryana, where he was scheduled to address an election rally.
The voting for the Assembly bypoll in Jind will take place on January 28. It is a high stakes prestige battle, in which the Congress has fielded its national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is also sitting MLA from Kaithal.
Hooda said, “He fully cooperated with the CBI officials.”
I have full faith in the judicial system, he added.
Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, who is the son of the two-time former CM, was also present in the house during the raid.
Deepender also accused the BJP Government of working with political vendetta for the past five years.
Congress legislator and former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma also alleged that the CBI raids were meant to stop Bhupinder Singh Hooda from attending the election meeting at Jind.
Hooda is already facing CBI investigations in two cases that related to Manesar land aquisition and allotment of an institutional plot to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald, in Panchkula. In both the cases, charge sheets have been filed in the Court.
The third case against Hooda and others was registered on the directions of the Supreme Court on
November 1, 2017 when the CBI was entrusted with the probe into alleged irregularities in the process of acquisition of 1,417.07 acres of land between 2009 and 2012 for sector 58 to 63 and 65 to 67 in Gurugram.