Bhupinder Singh Hooda,Moti Lal Vora granted bail in AJL land case

The case pertains to the restoration of an institutional plot at Panchkula that had been taken back by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to AJL at old prices in 2005, when Bhupinder Singh Hooda headed a Congress government in the state.

A special Enforcement Directorate (ED) court in Panchkula on Wednesday granted regular bail to former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Moti Lal Vora in connection with a case of alleged irregularities in a land deal with Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publisher of the National Herald. The court fixed December 10 as the next date of hearing.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Outside CBI Court Panchkula on Monday November  04, 2019.(Photo by Sant Arora/HT)

At the last hearing on October 30, the court granted interim bail to Hooda and Vora until November 6. On August 26, the agency filed a prosecution complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the court of special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Jagdeep Singh that is also the special court of the ED.

The case pertains to the restoration of an institutional plot at Panchkula that had been taken back by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to AJL at old prices in 2005, when Hooda headed a Congress government in the state.

Investigation under the PMLA was based on the fact that the plot had been allotted to AJL in 1982, but was resumed by HUDA through an order dated October 30, 1992, the statement said. AJL had not carried out any construction on the plot, as had been required to by the allotment letter.

The ED has maintained that the market value of plot C-17, Sector 6, Panchkula, was Rs 64.93 crore but Hooda gave it to AJL or Rs 59.39 lakh in 2005. The ED has also issued an attachment order against the property. and charged that Hooda allotted the pot to AJL by “blatantly misusing his official position”.

The National Herald, a Congress party publication, was founded in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru.

(PTI contributed to this story)