Change of land use controversy: 5 former MLAs booked by Vigilance Bureau
Haryana vigilance bureau on Friday registered corruption cases against a former minister, a former chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) and two ex-MLAs in the previous Congress regime for allegedly seeking graft in lieu of granting change of land use (CLU) permissions.
Haryana vigilance bureau on Friday registered corruption cases against a former minister, a former chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) and two ex-MLAs in the previous Congress regime for allegedly seeking graft in lieu of granting change of land use (CLU) permissions.
The Congressmen have been booked under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) of the prevention of corruption Act for allegedly seeking gratification and criminal misconduct.
Among those booked, Rao Narender Singh was the health minister in the previous Congress regime headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Vinod Bhayana was the chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) and Naresh Selwal and Jarnail Singh were the MLAs.
Another former MLA, Ram Niwas Ghorela, has been booked for allegedly seeking bribe in lieu of securing funds from the government for an NGO for opening schools under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan.
Additional director general of police, vigilance bureau, BK Sinha told HT that while case against Rao Narender Singh had been registered at Gurgaon, the case against the remaining four had been registered at Hisar.
In the past, another CPS in the Hooda government Ram Kishan Fauji was booked by the VB on December 4, 2014, for allegedly seeking Rs 5 crore in lieu of getting CLU permission to some people for a piece of land in Gurgaon. Though the Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the lokayukta order for registering a criminal case against Fauji on February 27, 2015, a division bench of the high court stayed its single judge bench’s order on December 15, 2015, and posted the matter for further hearing on February 1, 2016.
All these six (including Fauji) were caught on camera in separate ‘sting operations’ done by one Dharmender Kuhar and a few other workers of opposition party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The INLD leaders, including Abhay Chautala and state president Ashok Arora, subsequently had briefed the media in the context along with the compact discs (CDs) and also filed complaints before the lokayukta, Pritam Pal, in September 2013. The lokayukta had recommended criminal cases against all the six.
Also, the lokayukta was urged by the previous government to review his decision, though, he held that there was no provision of review in the Lokayukta Act and sent the case to a special investigation team (SIT) headed by additional director general of police V Kamaraj for investigation and verifying the authenticity of the CDs. Kamaraj recently submitted his report stating that there was enough evidence for registering a criminal case.
The charges
Rao Narender Singh allegedly seeking Rs 30-50 crore in lieu of change of land use permission for 30-acre land
Vinod Bhayana allegedly seeking Rs 2.5 crore to get CLU permission for 4-acre plot in Gurgaon
Naresh Selwal allegedly seeking Rs 10 -12 crore for getting about 3,000 yard land released from Section 6 of acquisition process in Sector 45 in Gurgaon
Jarnail Singh allegedly seeking money (amount not specified) for getting a CLU for a group housing society in Faridabad
Ram Niwas Ghorela allegedly seeking Rs 50 lakh from an NGO for getting Rs 2.5 crore funds to open schools under the Sarv Siksha Abhiyan