Face of Nation : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday questioned former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for the second consecutive day in connection with a money laundering case. The investigators grilled the Congress leader for six hours. He was questioned for nine hours Thursday.
The questioning of Hooda by ED officials started at 3pm and continued till 9 pm. Before this, the former CM had gone to the Panchkula situated CBI court in connection with the Manesar land deal but the hearing could not take place due to strike by the lawyers.
In a statement, the ED said that the directorate has recorded Hooda’s statement in a money laundering case in connection with Panchkula Industrial Plots Allotment scam. The ED has initiated its investigation on the basis of an FIRs registered by the State Vigilance Bureau in 2015 and by the CBI in 2016 in connection with alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 industrial plots in Panchkula during Hooda regime. It was alleged that these industrial plots were not allotted as per the eligibility criteria. “It has been found that the most of the plots were allocated to persons closely connected to Shri Hooda in terms of his personal capacity and also in terms of the political party he belongs to,” the ED said.
However, Hooda termed the action of enforcement agencies as part of political vendetta and “BJP government’s attempts to divert people’s attention from real issues”. ED attaches Rs 67 cr assets in Manesar land scam case
In a separate statement, the ED said that it has provisionally attached assets worth nearly Rs 66.57 crore in Manesar land scam under Prevention of Money Loundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). “The attached assets consist of 14.56 acres of land at Gurgaon (valued at Rs 43.54 crore) belonging to Mahamaya Exports Pvt. Ltd., and four acres of land and bank balances worth Rs 23.03 crore of other accused,” the ED said in a statement.
Several farmers and land owners alleged that they had been cheated to the tune of about Rs 1,500 crore in the case, in which Hooda is one of the accused. “It was alleged that farmers and land owners of villages in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnaula (also known as Nakhrola) had ancestral land of about 688 acres. They were compelled to sell approximately 400 acres out of the said land to private persons at throwaway prices under the threat of acquisition by the government between August 27, 2004 and August 24, 2007,” the ED had said earlier about the case.
The agency had filed a PMLA case in the alleged land scam deal in September 2016 on the basis of a Haryana Police FIR. It has been alleged that initially the Haryana government issued a notification under the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring land measuring about 912 acres for setting up an industrial model township. After this, all the plots had allegedly been grabbed from land owners by private builders at meagre rates.
“Investigations under PMLA revealed that the private builders, to whom the licences/CLUs were granted, made wrongful gain by conspiring with the public servants of Government of Haryana and politicians, who were involved in decision making for release of land. Most of the land was purchased by ABWIL (Aditya Buildell Infrastructure Ltd.) group controlled by Atul Bansal. After obtaining of licences, ABWIL had fraudulently sold the licensed/unlicensed land and licences to the private persons/ developers, thus making huge profit. Proceeds of Crime consists Rs 14.56 crore of land of M/s Mahamaya Exports Pvt. Ltd in which Atul Bansal and Sona Bansal hold 74 per cent of shares and 4 acres of land and balances in the bank account of other accused persons were provisionally attached under PMLA.”
