The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 29 recorded the statement of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with the Manesar land scam case.
The ED investigation was based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Gurugram police, which was later re-registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2015.
It was alleged that in conspiracy with some Haryana Government officials, private builders had acquired about 400 acres of land at throwaway rates, which caused a loss of about ₹1,500 crore to the previous owners in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages.
As alleged, the State Government had initially issued a notification under the Land Acquisition Act on August 27, 2004, and another notification on August 25, 2005, to acquire 912 acres of land for developing an industrial model township. Suspecting that they would not get appropriate compensation, a large number of landowners ended up selling their land at cheap rates to private entities.
Those entities further sold the land to various builders, who had secured construction licences and made huge profits, it was alleged. “Most of the land parcels were purchased by ABWIL Group, which is controlled by Atul Bansal. After obtaining of licences, ABWIL sold the licensed/unlicensed land and licences to the private persons/developers and thereby made huge profits,” the ED had alleged.
Based on their findings, both agencies have filed multiple chargesheets in their cases. In February 2018, the CBI submitted a chargesheet against Mr. Hooda and 33 others, including 23 land-owning companies of private builders; the then senior IAS officials Chattar Singh, M.L. Tayal, and S.S. Dhillon.
