Arguments on Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s discharge plea completed in AJL case

Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 15

Arguments on the discharge application of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the framing of charges against him were completed today before the CBI Special Court, Haryana, in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) plot re-allotment case.

Hooda and M/s AJL are accused in the case. Another accused, Motilal Vora, Congress leader and then chairman of M/s AJL, died recently.

Ex-cm was present at daylong hearing

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and M/s Associated Journals Limited (AJL) are accused in the case. Another accused, Motilal Vora, Congress leader and then chairman of M/s AJL, died recently.

Hooda has been seeking discharge from the case. The former Chief Minister remained present throughout the daylong hearing on Thursday along with his lawyers RS Cheema, PK Sandhir and SPS Parmar.

Hooda has been seeking discharge from the case. He remained present throughout the daylong hearing today along with his lawyers RS Cheema, PK Sandhir and SPS Parmar.

CBI counsel Kanwar Pal Singh submitted before the court that then chairman of M/s AJL Motilal Vora and then Chief Minister BS Hooda hatched a conspiracy for the restoration of the resumed institutional plot in Sector 6, Panchkula. He added that before Hooda, former Chief Minister Bansi Lal had not considered the requests for the restoration of the plot.

Vora did not make any request from 2002 to 2005 for the restoration of the plot though he became chairman in 2002 as he allegedly knew that the requests would be turned down in a non-Congress regime. At that time, there was an INLD government in Haryana. There was no request from the AJL even from 1998 to 2005 for the restoration of the plot.

Hooda became the Chief Minister on March 5, 2005, and Vora requested for the restoration of the plot on April 7, 2005. Hooda re-allotted the plot on August 28, 2005.

Officials of HUDA, the then Legal Remembrancer, and then Financial Commissioner Town and Country Planning Department had unanimously recommended that the plot could not be re-alloted without publishing a fresh advertisement at the current rate of Rs3,200 per sq yard. However, Hooda allegedly overruled them.

The 97th meeting of HUDA was held on May 16, 2006, whose chairman was Hooda himself and the ex-post facto approval of the re-allotment had been accorded.

On the defence of Hooda that he passed the re-allotment order under the provision of Section 30 (2) of HUDA Act, 1977, which grants revision powers, the CBI counsel said the same power had already been exercised by ML Tayal, then Commissioner and Secretary to the Haryana Government, Town and Country Planning Department, as the powers were delegated by the President of India under Subsection 2 of Section 30.

The CBI has been claiming that Hooda as chairman of HUDA misused his official position as Chief Minister by re-allotting the plot at the old rates, as applicable in 1982, causing a wrongful gain of Rs67.65 lakh to AJL and corresponding loss to the government exchequer.

On the contention of Hooda that there was an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and 13 (1) (d), which pertains to abusing official position for pecuniary advantage for himself or others, could not apply to him, the CBI counsel reasoned that as the offences had been committed before the amendment to the Act, brought on July 26, 2018, the relevant section “has been correctly attributed”.

He added that the AJL availed of two-term loans of Rs42.72 crore from Syndicate Bank, New Delhi, for making payments to the Municipal Corporation, Greater Mumbai, for their construction at Bandra and Mumbai and closure of an existing loan of Rs15.25 crore with a balance of Rs14.60 crore against a mortgage of land and building at Panchkula.

According to the CBI, the loan could have been taken only for the purpose for which the plot was allotted.

The purpose of allotment of the plot stood defeated as Hindi daily newspaper Nav-Jivan was not published from the premises, said the CBI.

CBI Special Judge Dr Sushil Kumar Garg would pronounce the order on the discharge application and framing of charges on April 16.