Hooda appears before court in land allotment cases

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 18

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and defence counsel presented their arguments over the chargesheet filed in the illegal allotment of land to Associated Journals Limited and the Manesar Land scam that came up for hearing in the special CBI court on Wednesday.

Defence counsel SPS Parmar said arguments over the chargesheet filed by the CBI were held in the court in the illegal allotment of land to Associated Journals Limited and the court had fixed October 22 as the next date of hearing.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had filed an application for discharge from the case in the Associated Journals case on August 22.

Similarly, in the Manesar land scam, Parmar said arguments by the CBI as well as the defence counsel were held and the case would come up for hearing on September 26.

In both these cases, Hooda is the main accused, who along with 33 others in the Manesar land scam, was present in the court.

Senior Congress leader Motilal Vora had already sought exemption from personal appearance due to old age and health problems.

On December 1 last year, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against Hooda, Vora and Associated Journals Ltd, in the special CBI court in Panchkula, for the alleged illegal re-allotment of land. Both Hooda and Vora had been granted bail by the court.

In the Manesar land scam, the CBI had filed a chargesheet naming 34 accused, including senior bureaucrats Chhattar Singh, SS Dhillon and ML Tayal, and realtor Atul Bansal. The CBI registered a case against the accused in September 2015 following allegations that private builders, in collusion with public servants of the Haryana Government, had bought around 400 acres of land from farmers of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurugram at throwaway prices.