Noose tightening around ex CM,Bhupinder Singh Hooda and half a dozen retired IAS officers in “Manesar Land Scam.”

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana- Pawan Kumar Bansal

Noose is tightening around Haryana Ex CM,Bhupinder Singh Hooda and half a dozen senior IAS officers who held key positions in Town & Country Planning department during his regime in what is known as “Manesar Land acquisition scam .”

Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Manjari Nehru Kaul has turned down the petitions filed by the retired IAS officers and other accused persons in Manesar Land scam.

The petitioners included former Principal Secretaries of the then CM,Hooda, Murari Lal Tayal, and Chhatar Singh,the former Director, Town & Country Planning department S.S .Dhillon and others including private builders.They had appealed against the order of Special CBI court Panchkula where trial of the case is going on.Justice Kaul has ruled that Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was not required for prosecuting the petitioners as they had already retired from service at the time when cognizance of offence was taken against them in 2018.
Petitioners had filed petition against the direction of Special CBI Court, Panchkula in the case titled ‘CBI Vs Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others’.

The case is registered under sections 120-B,420 ,465 ,467 ,468 ,471 of IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act ,1988 at the Police Station CBI,ACB,Chandigarh.Bhupinder Singh Hooda,Murari Lal Tayal ,Chhatar Singh ,Sandeep Singh Dhillon,all retired IAS officers of Haryana besides thirty officials of Town & Country Planning department Haryana and top builders are accused in the case.
What is the scam..?
Two decades back, notices for the acquisition of approximately 912 acres of land situated in the revenue estates of villages of Manesar,
Naurangpur and Lakhnaula in Gurugram district were issued,intended for the development of an Industrial Model Town.
According to the FIR, after issuance of this notification,private builders and property dealers allegedly exploited the situation by instilling fear among the innocent farmers that their land would be acquired by the government at nominal compensation.Under pressure,the farmers sold around 350 acres of Land to the said builders at substantially undervalued prices approximately Rs twenty to twenty five Lakhs per acre.When all the land identified for the purpose of acquisition was purchased by the “Land mafia “ under the looming threat of compulsory acquisition at inadequate rates ,the competent authority namely the Director of the Department of Industries released the Land from the acquisition process.It is alleged that the release order was in contravention of the government policy and was passed to favour the private builders,their entities and agents rather than the original landowners.It is, thus ,alleged that a wrongful loss of approximately Rs fifteen hundred crore was caused to the landowners of above mentioned villages while corresponding unlawful gains were made by the politicians,
government functionaries and their agents .On the orders of the Supreme Court,CBI conducted the probe and has filed chargesheet in CBI Special Court Panchkula where trial is going on.

Recall that ten years back, Haryana government considering the gravity and complexity of the case had also issued a formal request for the investigation by the CBI.The judgement has also put the Naib Saini led Haryana government in catch -22 situation as it has to take a tough decision of granting sanction for the prosecution under Prevention of Corruption Act against Rajiv Arora IAS officer who is close to the Union Minister,Manohar Lal.
Rajiv Arora has pleaded in the appeal that Special CBI Court,Panchkula where trial is going on had issued a directive to the competent authority mandating the grant of sanction under the PC Act .The judgment on the appeal has said that this is wholly misconceived and untenable.It said that Special CBI Court did not issue any such orders.It has held that Special CBI Court did not issue any binding or peremptory command to the competent authority to accord sanction adding that it merely directed the investigation agency (CBI) to to submit the relevant material gathered during the investigation to the appropriate authority for its consideration.