CBI books former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda for 'illegal' land deals

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday booked former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, an IAS officer and 15 private builders on charges of corruption, criminal conspiracy, cheating public at large and causing unlawful loss to the state.

The agency also conducted raids at Hooda’s residence and in more than 20 places including Chandigarh, Rohtak, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Mohali.

The builders booked by CBI include DLF New Gurgaon Homes Developers, Emaar MGF Land Ltd, DSS Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Sana Realtors, JMD Ltd, Ansal Properties, HS Realty Pvt Ltd, Gupta Promoters Pvt Ltd, RS Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Marconi Infratech, Commanders Realtors, SU Estates, Buzz Hotels, Krish Buildtech Pvt Ltd and Martial Buildcon Pvt Ltd.


CBI’s preliminary enquiry (PE) has revealed that Hooda and TC Gupta, a 1987 batch IAS officer and the then head of the town and planning department, allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy with private builders to deliberately notify huge chunks of land in various sectors of Gurgaon for acquisition for public purpose.

This led to the land owners selling their lands at throwaway prices to private builders. But the government ended up actually acquiring only a small proportion of these notified land tracts.

PE Launched on SC Order
The private developers then allegedly benefitted through illegal release of these land parcels by the Hooda government. Once that happened, the CBI FIR states, in a conspiracy involving the top officials like Gupta, these builders applied for and obtained licenses to construct from state government, thus ensuring windfall gains.

The CBI had launched a PE on January 1 last year, two months after the Supreme Court on November 1, 2017 ordered a CBI probe into Hooda government’s decision to initiate acquisition of 1,417 acres of land in Gurgaon, of which only 87 acres were eventually acquired. The alleged illegal release of land pertains to Sectors 58 to 63 and 65 to 67.

The FIR also assumes significance because it includes the controversial release of land to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust by the Hooda-led Congress government, in which former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and present party chief Rahul Gandhi are the trustees.

Former CBI special director Rakesh Ashana had raised this case in his complaint against ousted director of the agency Alok Verma and his deputy joint director AK Sharma. He had suspected illegal gratification to CBI officials to delay the probe and then recommend for closure of the case to the SC. The SCmandated Central Vigilance Commission inquiry, which looked into the complaint, had also suggested a detailed probe in the matter.

In its PE, the CBI has found that in furtherance of criminal conspiracy in certain instances “collaboration agreements executed between colonizers and land owners” were found “ante dated whereas the collaboration agreements for empowering the colonizers to apply for grant of license were actually executed” after notification of land acquisition by Hooda government.

The PE has further revealed that various “discrepancies” were deliberately overlooked by Hooda and TC Gupta at the time of notification of land acquisition in 2009 knowing fully well that the said land, sought to be acquired, was of no use.

“The purpose of HUDA (Haryana Urban Development Authority) for acquisition of land for ensuring availability of developed land at affordable prices to the public at large and to the economically weaker sections of the society has not been achieved. Land has been made available to HUDA only for the Town level external facilities”, reads the FIR.

It further adds that the colonizers “fraudulently and dishonestly applied for licences and managed to get the respective land released from acquisition process”.

Commenting on the developments, a DLF spokesperson said: “A team from the CBI has visited our offices today, as well as those of several other corporates, with respect to an old case, pertaining to a land acquisition matter. We are fully confident of the merits of our case and are extending our full cooperation to the authorities.”

In June 2009, the Hooda government had issued a notification wanting to acquire 1,417 acres of land falling in villages Badshapur, Behrampur, Nangli, Ulhawas, Kadarpur and other tehsils of Gurgaon district for development of residential sectors of 58 to 63 and residential-commercial sectors of 65 to 67.

The government, however, ended up acquiring, in May 2012, less than 87 acres as opposed to the intended 1,400 acres. It was alleged that the remaining land was arbitrarily and illegally released by the Hooda government to builders. This acquisition included the leasing out of five acres of land by Gram Panchayat of Village Ulhawas to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

Government auditor CAG, in its report in 2013, had also slammed the Hooda government for bending the rules to favour the Trust.