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Land deal: Hooda asked to appear before probe panel by March
The SN Dhingra Commission, which is probing murky land deals and irregularities in issuing licenses to developers by the town and country planning department (TCPD), has summoned former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to appear in his court on March 25.
The SN Dhingra Commission, which is probing murky land deals and irregularities in issuing licenses to developers by the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD), has summoned former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in its court on March 25.
Though the notice was served on Hooda for appearing in the Gurgaon-based court of one-man Commission of Inquiry on March 21, the former CM cited ongoing Haryana assembly session as a reason for the postponement of the date after Holi.
The Congress leader who held the reigns of Haryana consecutively for two terms between 2004 and 2014, confirmed to HT over phone, “I received summon for March 21 but requested the CoI to postpone it for March 25 for the ongoing Haryana assembly session for which it agreed.”
Hooda happens to be the first political leader to receive summon for appearing the in court of Justice SN Dhingra. Earlier on March 4, the CoI had grilled Haryana chief secretary Deepinder Singh Dhesi. Dhesi was principal secretary of the TCPD in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government. He is among the many officials of the Hooda government under the commission’s scanner for alleged irregularities in issuing licenses to developers in Gurgaon’s Sector 78-86.
The court also grilled additional chief secretary of transport DS Dhillon for four days -- February 29 to March 3. Dhillon was financial commissioner and principal secretary of the TCPD in the Hooda government. Dhesi had taken over as Haryana chief secretary on December 31, 2014 in the BJP-led Government that had constituted an inquiry in May 2015. The term of this commission expires in June.
