The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday conducted raids at the premises of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with an illegal acquisition of land case in Gurugram, The Hindu reported. A CBI official said raids were being carried out at 20 locations across Haryana and the National Capital Region, including Chandigarh and Delhi.
The agency has also searched the premises of two of Hooda’s personal secretaries and a serving Indian Administrative Services official in connection with the case, the official said, adding that "some private companies" are being investigated as well. It has been alleged that builders acquired land in Gurugram worth Rs 1,600 crore at only Rs 100 crore in collusion with unknown government officials during Hooda’s tenure.
The land in question was earlier opened up for private acquisition in 2007 following an order passed by the state’s Director of Industries, the newspaper report said. Haryana police then registered a case to investigate the allegations after the Bharatiya Janata Party formed its government in the state in 2015. The CBI took over the case in September 2015.
The raids come just two days after the one-man Justice SN Dhingra commission looking into land deals in Haryana submitted its report to the Manohar Lal Khattar government in the state. The report found irregularities in 250 cases, including one involving Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.
Following Dhingra’s refusal to make the details of all the irregularities public, Hooda called on the Manohar Lal Khattar administration to make the entire report available in public domain. He also accused the BJP government of "sensationalising facts" and indulging in "witch-hunting". The senior contended that the irregularities Dhingra found did not "necessarily mean there was any illegality" in the deals.
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