The CBI on Friday raided several premises belonging to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda provoking a strong reaction from the Congress, which warned officials of probe agencies of consequences for targeting political opponents of the Modi Government.
The CBI on Wednesday registered a new case against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Additional Chief Secretary of Haryana and then Chief Administrator of HUDA TC Gupta for alleged irregularities in land allocation in Gurugram in 2009 and carried out searches on Friday at 20 locations in Delhi-NCR including in Chandigarh, Rohtak, Gurugram and Mohali. The searches were also conducted at Hooda’s residence in Rohtak.
The CBI case relates to alleged corruption in the acquisition of 1,417 acres of land in 2009 in Gurugram.
Besides Hooda and Gupta, the agency has also named 15 builders/colonisers in the case, including DLF, Emaar MGF, Buzz Hotels, Ansals among others.
The official premises of top functionaries of the builders were searched during the operation in the morning.
Reacting to the raids, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said such actions when the Prime Minister and the ruling dispensation “target its political opponents by using agencies against them are dangerous for democracy in our country”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a mindset of targeting his political opponents by defaming them with the objective of muzzling the voice of the Opposition and to tarnish the image of their tall leaders.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the action today in the form of raids on former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda with the sole purpose of defaming him,” Sharma told reporters.
Sharma also said the “ill-will” in the mind of the Prime Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah is clear and the timing is also very clear. “They are converting India into a police state,” Sharma alleged, adding that the Prime Minister has used probe agencies to target former Chief Ministers be it in Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh.
“We are warning all concerned not to exceed their brief or act above the law. All officials must hear this that Governments do not have permanency and they keep changing....They will be held accountable and they will have to answer once the Government changes,” he further said.
The case was registered on the directions of the Supreme Court on November 1, 2017 where the CBI was entrusted to probe alleged irregularities in the acquisition process of 1,417 acres of land between 2009 and 2012 for sector 58-63 and 65-67 in Gurugram on June 2, 2009.
The Government had issued notification for the acquisition of 1,417.07 acres of land situated at sector 58 to 63 and 65 to 67, Gurugram on June 2, 2009, the CBI alleged in the FIR. Subsequently, another notification was issued for acquisition of 850.10 acres on May 31, 2010.
It emerged during the preliminary enquiry that the purpose of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for acquisition of land for ensuring availability of developed land at affordable prices to the public at large and to the economically weaker sections of the society, has not been achieved, according to the FIR.
The agency alleged that private builders entered in criminal conspiracy with Hooda and Gupta with an intent to cheat land owners.
In pursuance of the conspiracy, notifications for acquisition of land were issued by the Government triggering panic sale of land to private developers at a much cheaper rate than the prevailing market prices, the FIR alleged.
A large chunk of land was of no use to HUDA still it was covered in government notification. The developers used their influence to get licences issued for pockets which were not useful for HUDA and those lands were released from acquisition process.
The Government had issued notification for the acquisition of total area of 1,417.07 acre in 2009 and 850.10 acre in 2010.
It has further been revealed that during the notification period, approximately 616.40 acre was released in favour of the private developers.
Other builders booked by the agency include RS Infrastructure, Martial Buildcon, Marconi Infratech, Commander Realtors, SU Estates Pvt Ltd, Krrish Buildtech, JMD Ltd, Gupta Promoters, H S Realty, DSS Infrastructure and Sana Realtors.