Manesar: Haryana had admitted ‘errors’ in SC

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5

Within days of the CBI filing a chargesheet in the court of the Special Judge, Panchkula, against 34 persons, including former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in the Manesar land scam, it has now come to light that the Haryana Government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court apologising for furnishing wrong facts. This was done after final arguments on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) on which the judgment was reserved.

Two months after the arguments were concluded, the government told the apex court that licences to new owners were granted only after the acquisition process was dropped. The government had earlier maintained that the Hooda government had shown haste in granting licences to builders even before the acquisition was scrapped.

After the arguments were concluded and judgment reserved (on April 4, 2017), the Haryana Government through its Director, Industries, Mohammed Shayin, filed yet another affidavit on June 15. The amended affidavit reads: “15 licences were granted on this land and all the licences were granted after the decision of the government to drop the acquisition i.e after 24-08-2007.” 

“...the deponent humbly apologises for the mistake and error committed and for the inconvenience caused and further assures to be careful in future while filing any affidavit in the court of law”.

Perhaps unaware of the government’s volte-face in the apex court, the CBI filed a chargesheet supported with 80,000 documents in the Panchkula CBI court last Friday, alleging a loss of Rs 1,500 crore to landowners of Gurugram’s Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages.

The CBI alleged the villagers had sold their land at throwaway prices to builders for fear of acquisition by the government. But the government dropped the acquisition proceedings later to help the new owners.

Haryana Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan, when asked about the second affidavit, said the matter was being handled by law officers in the Supreme Court. Haryana Government’s law officer Anil Grover told The Tribune that the original affidavit carried certain errors and when this came to the knowledge of the government, another affidavit was filed with clarifications. He said the issue being probed by the CBI was regarding the “conspiracy” to defraud landowners and that the number and date of licences issued was not an issue before any court. Therefore, the government had not officially apprised the CBI of these facts.

The CBI has alleged that private builders in conspiracy with certain public servants purchased about 400 acres of land at throwaway rates (Rs 20 to 25 lakh per acre) whereas the market value of the land was more than Rs 4 crore per acre. 

After a notification under the Land Acquisition Act, private builders and other persons had purchased 459 acres of land and licences and CLUs were granted to those private builders who had earlier purchased the land at throwaway rates.