E-Paper
HC stays CBI court order summoning Haryana ACS, home, in Manesar land scam
Staying the Panchkula-based trial court’s order, the high court bench of justice Arvind Singh Sangwan sought the CBI’s response by April
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday stayed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court’s order summoning additional chief secretary, Haryana, Rajeev Arora as an accused in the Manesar land scam.
Staying the Panchkula-based trial court’s order, the high court bench of justice Arvind Singh Sangwan sought the CBI’s reply by April, senior advocate Vinod Ghai, who appeared for Arora, said.
The detailed order is awaited.
The case dates back to 2004. The Haryana government issued a notification to acquire 912 acres under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, on August 27, 2004, in Manesar, Lakhnaula and Naurangpur villages. Worried that this would reduce the value of their land, owners sold it at throwaway rates, resulting in wrongful loss of ₹1,500 crore, according to the probe.
On August 24, 2007, the director, industries, passed another order releasing the land in violation of government policy, in favour of the people who had bought the land, instead of the original landowners, the CBI said.
In 2018, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 34 accused, including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
On December 1, the CBI court had summoned Arora and four others for December 17 and also ordered the framing of charges against Hooda and 32 others.
Arora, a 1987-batch IAS officer, and four others were summoned for allegedly committing offence under Section 120B, read with Section 420 of the IPC, and Section 13 (2), read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Arora served as the managing director of Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (HSIIDC) between 2005 and 2011. The others summoned are former chief town planner, HSIIDC, Surjit Singh; former chief town planner of town and country planning department, Dhare Singh; the then deputy superintendent, town and country planning, Kulwant Singh Lamba; and the then director, industries, DR Dhingra.
