The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday searched the residence of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after registering a fresh case of corruption against him in connection with a land acquisition case in Gurgaon. In an FIR registered on Wednesday, the CBI has accused Hooda and Additional Chief Secretary with Haryana government Trilok Chandra Gupta for conspiring with as many as 14 builders to cheat land owners and Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) through fraudulent issue of licenses and release of acquired land to real estate developers. Among the companies accused are DLF New Gurgaon Homes Developers, Emaar MGF, JMD Ltd, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure, R S Infrastructure, Martial Buildcon, Marconi Infratech, Commander Realtors, SU Estates, Buzz Hotels, Krrish Buildtech, Gupta Promoters, H S Realty, DSS Infrastructure and Sana Realtors. The agency today searched 20 locations across Delhi-NCR and Haryana, which included the offices of the accused companies and the Rohtak residence of Hooda. This is the third case registered against the former CM by the CBI in connection with grant of land or land acquisition. The other two being the Associate Journals Ltd case related to grant of land in Panchkula to the National Herald newspaper and another case related to alleged land grab in Manesar. According to the CBI FIR, the fresh case is related to the acquisition of land for the development of sectors 58 to 63 and 65 to 67 in Gurugram. The acquisition was allegedly started with the objective of building a land bank for HUDA to provide affordable housing to economically weaker sections of the society, the FIR said. But notifications and acquisitions were made in such a manner that land owners were forced to make distress sale to builders, the FIR alleged. It has also said that licenses were granted in such a manner that over 600 acres of over 1,400 acres of acquired land became redundant for HUDA and had to be released for development to builders. According to the CBI, Gupta was the then chief administrator of HUDA and subsequently posted as Director, Urban Estate and Director, Town and Country Planning. CM Hooda was also the minister in-charge of Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Haryana. The investigative agency said it has registered the case based on directions of the Supreme Court dated November 1, 2017. The government had issued a notification for the acquisition of 1,417.07 acres of land situated at sector 58 to 63 and 65 to 67, Gurgaon on June 2, 2009. Subsequently, another notification was issued for acquisition of 850.10 acres on May 31, 2010. These came under the SC scanner and based on its orders, the CBI had initiated a preliminary enquiry. The FIR also said that an enquiry by CBI found that the accused companies had purchased the part of the notified land by way of general power of attorney (GPA), agreement to sell, special power of attorney or ante-dated collaboration agreements from the land owners. Based on these ante-dated agreements, the FIR alleged, Letters of Intent (LOI) or licenses were issued by Gupta and approved by Hooda. The companies allegedly converted the GPAs or agreement to sell into sale deeds after release of land from acquisition proceedings. “Further, some of the GPAs were executed outside the jurisdictional area i.e. Gurugram/Sohna by mentioning fake local addresses of land owners. The above said companies had submitted incomplete applications for grant of license. The same was processed despite having several deficiencies and the LOI/Licenses were granted,” the FIR said. The CBI has alleged that its enquiry has established that there are a number of discrepancies in the applications of the companies. “The deficiencies/flaws are related to the title of the land, defective layout, the absence of scrutiny fee, GPAs, ante-dated collaboration agreements etc. Despite that, the files were processed expeditiously and LoIs/licenses were granted,” the FIR said. The agency has said that irregularities had defeated the purpose of land acquisition which was to provide affordable housing. “Preliminary enquiry has prima-facie established that many of the pockets sandwiched between licensed land or land falling under revenue rasta, nallah etc. were proposed for acquisition. Therefore, a conscious decision is needed to be taken for the acquisition of such pockets as it may be difficult to utilize such irregular shaped pockets. However, the above discrepancies were overlooked and notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was issued. Subsequently, a notification under section 6 of Land Acquisition Act 1894 was issued (for such land in the above-mentioned sectors). Finally, the purpose of HUDA for the 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,” the CBI FIR said. The FIR alleged that Hooda “did not protect the interest of HUDA as well as Govt. of Haryana in as much as he approved the grant of LoI and release of a major part of the notified land”. “Preliminary enquiry further prima-facie established that the lands in question were released from acquisition process in spite of deviation and the licenses were fraudulently obtained by the above said accused companies in the names of their collaborators and the land was released from acquisition process irregularly y in connivance with public servants namely Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Shri Trilok Chand Gupta,” the FIR said.
