CBI questions UPSC member Chattar Singh in land acquisition scam

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) on Monday quizzed Union Public Service Commission ( UPSC) member Chattar Singh in relation with alleged illegal allotment of industrial land by the former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda led government in Haryana.

Singh was then serving as Principal Secretary to Hooda. Former IAS officer, Singh was quizzed by CBI for nearly five hours. An FIR was registered against the former chief minister by CBI last May.

The FIR was registered after the Vigilance Bureau of current Haryana government had forwarded the case to CBI. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allocation of industrial plots at Panchkula in 2012 when Hooda was the Chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).

Hooda had denied allegations against him accusing the Manohar Lal government of political vendetta. After registration of FIR last year, CBI had carried out searches at 16 locations including Chandigarh, Panchkula, Faridabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Rohtak against former bureaucrats and beneficiaries who are alleged to have used their links in obtaining industrial plots at Panchkula.

In its FIR, CBI had alleged that HUDA violated key rules while allotting land. The plots were allotted, the FIR read, by making irregular changes in the criteria after the last date of submission of applications had passed.