CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has granted sanction to prosecute leader of opposition and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and three others in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case involving the allotment of 14 plots in the Industrial Area of Panchkula.
Sources said that after nine years of probe, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought sanction to prosecute Bhupinder Singh Hooda and three other officials, including former IAS officer Dharam Pal Singh Nagal (the Chief Administrator of Haryana Urban Development Authority); former officials of HUDA, Subhash Chandra Kansal (former Chief Controller of Finance) and Bharat Bhushan Taneja (former Deputy Superintendent).
The state government has recommended the case of former IAS officer Nagal to the competent authority in the central government--the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)--for the grant of sanction to prosecute him under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
As the union government alone is competent to take a view in PC Act cases where a serving or former IAS officer is indicted.
Following the sanction, the CBI will file a charge sheet against Hooda, former government officials and the allottees in a trial court at Panchkula. It is alleged that the allotments were made in violation of norms to individuals considered close to the former chief minister.
The First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered on May 19, 2016, against Hooda, Nagal, Kansal, Taneja, 13 beneficiaries of plots and unknown persons, replicating an FIR registered by the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau on December 19, 2015. The case was then transferred to the CBI.
The applications for allotment were invited between December 7, 2011 and January 6, 2012, under the estate management procedure (EMP) of 2011. The plot allotments were made in 2013. It was alleged in the FIR that 14 plots in phases 1 and 2 of the Panchkula industrial area were not allotted as per the eligibility criteria for allotment.
Hooda was the Chief Minister then as well as the Chairman of HUDA. He had reportedly kept the file for finalisation of allotment criteria with him for a long time. It is alleged that Hooda misused his official position and changed the allotment criteria on January 24, 2012, as the deadline for inviting the applications for the allotment of industrial plots was over on January 6, as per the investigating agency's findings.
It further added that the allotment of plots was not made in accordance with the proposed criteria, the allotment criteria were changed after the deadline had lapsed, and plots were wrongfully allotted to ineligible applicants.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had already filed a charge sheet against Hooda, officials and the allottees on February 18, 2021, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in a special court against Hooda and others.
The special PMLA court in Panchkula on May 15, 2024, paused the trial in the money laundering case till the CBI submitted the charge sheet in the case.
Hooda has been named as the “central conspirator” in the ED’s prosecution complaint. The agency alleged that he actually planned the illegal allocation and altered the eligibility criteria to suit selected allottees.