A Central Bureau of Investigation court on Thursday granted bail to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Moti Lal Vora in a case related to an alleged illegal re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Limited in Panchkula district, The Indian Express reported.
CBI judge Jagdeep Singh granted them bail after they furnished a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh each. The matter has been posted for further hearing on February 6. Hooda and Vora were also given copies of the chargesheet filed by the agency.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on December 1 filed a chargesheet against Hooda and Vora in the case. The agency claimed that the re-allotment of the plot to the Associated Journals Limited had caused a loss of Rs 67 lakh to the exchequer.
The CBI said Associated Journals was allotted a plot of land in Panchkula in 1982, on which no construction took place for 10 years. The Haryana Urban Development Authority then took back possession of the plot.
In 2005, the same plot was allotted at the old rate to Associated Journals, allegedly in violation of norms established by the Haryana Urban Development Authority, which was then led by Hooda. As the chief minister, the Congress leader was the ex-officio chairperson of the authority. Vora was then the chairperson of Associated Journals.
The state’s Vigilance Bureau was investigating the case, but the CBI took over the case last year after the Haryana government sent a reference citing involvement of persons in “high places” that were beyond the jurisdiction of the Vigilance Bureau.
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