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AJL case: Hooda approaches HC for quashing of ED case
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking quashing of the enforcement directorate (ED) probe of alleged money laundering in allotment of a plot to Associated Journal Limited (AJL), publisher of the National Herald newspaper
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking quashing of the enforcement directorate (ED) probe of alleged money laundering in allotment of a plot to Associated Journal Limited (AJL), publisher of the National Herald newspaper.
The plea will be taken up by the bench of justice Ajay Tewari and justice Vikas Bahl on Wednesday. An ECIR was registered by the ED on July 15, 2016. It filed prosecution complaint before the Panchkula trial court on August 26, 2019 and the trial court took note of it on September 26, 2019 and summoned Hooda as an accused.
On July 5 this year, the trial court passed an order that it will hear arguments on framing of charges on the next date and decide plea seeking deferring of hearing in the case.
The plea for the same was filed by Hooda in view of the HC staying trial against him in the CBI case into same controversy.
He has argued that there is neither any legal sanction nor any material warranting his prosecution under the offence of money laundering. The complaint is liable to be dismissed as the same is violative of the constitutional protection granted under Article 20 (1) of the Constitution of India against retrospective operation of penal provision.
He has claimed that no prosecution can be lawfully launched on the basis of a complaint which, admittedly from the respondent side, is subject matter of further investigation before the prosecuting agency.
Hence, he has sought quashing of the August 2019 complaint and September 2019 proceedings under which cognisance was taken by the trial court.
The money laundering probe was based on allegations that the property was allotted to AJL in 1982 but was taken back by the estate officer, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) a decade later, October 30, 1992 since AJL did not comply with the conditions of allotment.
In 1995 and 1996, an appeal and revisions were filed by AJL against resumption of the plot, but these were also dismissed by the HUDA administration and Haryana’s financial commissioner (town and country planning).
However, when Hooda became the chief minister in 2005, he allowed re-allotment of the plot to AJL at old rates. At the time of registration of the CBI FIR, late Moti Lal Vora was chairman of AJL and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi were among the shareholders. The newspaper was launched in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru.
Initially, on May 5, 2016, the FIR was registered by the Haryana vigilance bureau regarding allegations of cheating and corruption against Hooda and others.
In December 2016, the Haryana government recommended CBI probe. CBI has submitted a chargesheet against him in trial court.
