SC orders CBI probe in Haryana land case

NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the culpability of Haryana government functionaries and officials for releasing nearly 400-acre land in Rohtak from acquisition, and granting colonisation licences on 280 acres to real estate developer Uddar Gagan Properties in 2005-06, when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief minister

NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the culpability of Haryana government functionaries and officials for releasing nearly 400-acre land in Rohtak from acquisition, and granting colonisation licences on 280 acres to real estate developer Uddar Gagan Properties in 2005-06, when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief minister.

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A three-judge bench headed by Justice Uday U Lalit expressed dissatisfaction with the inquiries conducted by the Haryana government, saying it was time to hand over the probe to the central agency for a thorough investigation into illegalities and the role of officials in releasing the land to Uddar Gagan.

This the second instance of the CBI investigating the alleged complicity of Haryana government officials and private builders in tainted land deals when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief minister between 2005 and 2014. The CBI, which was probing the land deal in Gurugram’s Manesar at the instance of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, was told by the Supreme Court in March 2018 to also look into substantial sums allegedly paid to “middlemen” for the Manesar deal.

The bench, which included Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Aniruddha Bose, expressed anguish at the government’s inaction in fastening the responsibility of its officials for their role in releasing 400 acres of land in Rohtak.

“This court delivered a judgment in 2016, and five years down the line, we are still groping in the dark. We wanted the fraud to be unearthed, and we wanted those involved should be proceeded against. But the whole thing looks like a subterfuge now,” observed the bench.

It lamented that the latest inquiry report by an IAS officer, Anurag Rastogi, flagged just a “systemic failure” and did not fix anyone’s responsibility.

“According to you, everything is a systemic failure and nothing is wrong. But there will naturally be somebody and more people behind this whole thing,” the bench told Haryana’s senior additional advocate general Anil Grover.

The judges accepted the submission of senior advocate and amicus curiae Joydeep Gupta that the present case warrants a CBI probe since all inquiries by the state governments have failed to pinpoint the culpability of any official of the state government. Advocate Kanika Agnihotri, who represents real estate developer Uddar Gagan Properties, was present during the hearing.

Anil Grover, on behalf of the state government, opposed a CBI probe, saying that the facts of this case were entirely different from the facts of Manesar’s land acquisition case where middlemen were said to be involved. He supported the findings of the inquiry reports by Rastogi and the previous report by retired high court judge RS Madan.

But the court turned down the submission and recorded in its order: “Having considered the submissions of the amicus and his contentions about the previous order in Rameshwar Vs Haryana, in our view the matter must be made over to CBI to consider all the issues pertaining to direction 33.9 in Uddar Gagan judgment (relating to the role of persons responsible).”

The bench clarified that it has not pronounced upon the merits of the matter which shall be looked into by the CBI independently and the agency will submit a report in the court.

Nearly 850 acres of land was proposed to be acquired in 2002 for residential and commercial sectors in Rohtak by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). However, the award was passed for around 422 acres in April 2005.

In March 2005, realtor Uddar Gagan Properties Ltd entered into a collaboration agreement with some farmers, whose land was acquired to develop a colony. The builder applied for a licence to develop a colony on 280 acres.

The licences were granted by the town and country planning director in June 2006, and the corresponding land was released from acquisition. The licences were addressed to the owners but remitted to the builder.

Upholding the land acquisition process, the top court had in May 2006 ordered that the land will vest in HUDA free from all encumbrances, adding all land-release orders in favour of the builder for the land covered stood quashed.

The Manesar case pertained to the alleged purchase of 400 acres of land from farmers for ₹100 crore when the actual worth (according to market rate) was ₹1,600 crore. The purchase, according to the CBI, was made during 2004-2007, under the “threat and false apprehension of acquisition of the land by the state government” while the officials continued giving licences to the private realtors for developing the land.