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SC unhappy with CBI probe in Gurugram land release case
The Supreme Court (SC) has expressed its displeasure over the manner in which the CBI has investigated the case pertaining to release of over 1,300 acres of Gurugram
The Supreme Court (SC) has expressed its displeasure over the manner in which the CBI has investigated the case pertaining to release of over 1,300 acres of Gurugram land from acquisition process and grant of real estate development licenses to realtors during the Congress rule between 2009 -12.
Following a probe ordered by the apex court, the CBI, on January 23, had registered a criminal case against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, an official and 15 real estate developers in the matter and conducted search operations at several places. The first information report (FIR) also mentioned unknown public servants and private individuals as accused.
Superintendent of police (SP), anti-corruption unit of CBI, Vijayendra Kumar, had prayed for extension of time to file a final report, which was recently submitted by the probe agency.
Hearing the matter on Monday, an apex court bench of justice Arun Mishra and justice Sanjiv Khanna said: “We are not happy with the way the CBI has investigated the matter. Let the CBI director look into the same. We expect a fair, independent and impartial investigation to be made in the matter, which is being supervised by this court.”
The court listed the matter for further hearing in January next year.
The central agency had come under fire from the apex court during a July 3 hearing for seeking indefinite time to complete the probe.
The SC had in November 2017 ordered a CBI probe in the land matter with a six-month deadline (till May 30, 2018) for the agency to submit a report. The probe agency, on its asking, was subsequently given extension of time on multiple occasions to submit the report.
On January 7, the apex court granted a further four-month extension to prepare and file the final report. After the CBI filed the final report on April 27, the apex court expressed its dissatisfaction since the investigating agency had failed to come up with a deadline to complete the probe and submit a charge-sheet in the court. Following SP Kumar’s request, the apex court on July 26 had granted four months’ time to complete the investigation and submit the chargesheet/report.
THE CASE
The Congress government had in June 2009 issued a notification under Section 4 to acquire 1,407 acres for developing residential Sectors 58-63 and commercial Sectors 65-67 in Gurugram by the HUDA.
The land sought to be acquired covered eight villages — Badshapur, Behrampur, Nangli Umarpura, Tigra, Ullahwas, Kadarpur, Ghatta and Medawas of Gurugram. However, while issuing the declaration under Section 6 on June 2, 2010, the total area was reduced to about 800 acres. Finally, the award dated May 29, 2012 was passed for 87 acres only. The CBI in its preliminary enquiry had prima facie established irregularities in the release of land from acquisition process.
