CHANDIGARH: A special CBI court in Panchkula formally discharged Leader of the Opposition and former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress leader Motilal Vora and the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in a money-laundering case.
The case pertains to the reallocation of an institutional plot at old rates.
Special Judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Haryana, Rajeev Goyal, closed the ED’s complaint. The court orders follow a ruling by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 25, which set aside a 2021 order that had originally framed charges against the petitioners.
"In light of the Supreme Court judgment in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case, the ED complaint cannot survive as the accused have been discharged in the predicate offence,’’ said SPS Parmar, counsel of Hooda.
Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had observed that there were no sufficient grounds to proceed with a criminal trial, noting that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case of dishonest intention or wrongful gain.
In the Vijay Madanla Choudhary case, the Supreme Court held, "If the person is finally discharged or acquitted of the scheduled offence or the criminal case against him is quashed by the Court of competent jurisdiction, there can be no offence of money-laundering against him.’’
The case stems from the re-allotment of a 3,360-square-metre plot (C-17) in Sector 6, Panchkula, in 2005 to AJL for starting a newspaper on a non-profit, no-loss basis at a concessional rate of Rs 91 per square metre.
As no construction was carried out within two years, the plot was resumed, and all appeals were decided by October 10, 1996. The plot was originally allotted in 1982, and then, when the Hooda Government came to power, it re-allotted the land to AJL at the original rates of approximately Rs 69.39 lakh.