A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Haryana’s Panchkula on Friday discharged former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress leader Motilal Vora and the company Associated Journals Limited in a case related to an allegedly illegal re-allotment of a plot, The New Indian Express reported.
Judge Rajeev Goyal closed the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate, PTI reported.
This came days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 25 set aside a 2021 order that had framed charges against Hooda, who is currently the leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly, Vora and the Associated Journals Limited, the publisher of the National Herald.
The High Court had said that there were insufficient grounds to proceed with a criminal trial. It noted that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case of dishonest intention or wrongful gain.
On Friday, Hooda’s counsel told reporters that Goyal had closed the Enforcement Directorate complaint as Hooda and the Associated Journals Limited had already been discharged in the main case pursued by the Central Bureau of Investigation, PTI reported.
The case
The case pertained to the allotment of a plot in Panchkula’s Sector 6 by the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, then known as the Haryana Urban Development Authority, to the Associated Journals Limited in 1982, PTI reported.
The plot was taken back by the authority in 1992 after construction was not completed within the stipulated period.
The Associated Journals Limited had filed appeal and revision petitions against the move. This was dismissed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority in 1995 and 1996.
In 2005, the plot was re-allotted to the Associated Journals Limited at the original rate after Hooda became the chief minister, PTI reported.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Haryana in 2014, after which the State Vigilance Bureau registered a first information report in the matter in 2016.
This was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which alleged that the re-allotment was illegal, caused financial loss to the public exchequer and conferred undue benefit on Associated Journals Limited, The Indian Express reported.
In April 2021, the special Central Bureau of Investigation court ordered the framing of charges under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to criminal conspiracy and cheating, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, against Hooda and the Associated Journals Limited.
Hooda moved the High Court against this order.
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