CHANDIGARH: Haryana governor Satyadev Narayan Arya on Thursday gave sanction for prosecution of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for allotment of land to the Associated Journals Limited. The AJL is controlled by senior Congress leaders, including the Gandhi family and published the National Herald newspaper.

The CBI, which had taken over the case from Haryana vigilance bureau in April last year, had sought prosecution sanction in October this year. The nod, a formality, indicates that the CBI is ready to file its chargesheet against Hooda for the re-allotment of 3,360 square metre institutional plot at old rates. The governor’s decision to grant the sanction came as Hooda was chairing a meeting of his supporters at the Kisan Bhawan in Sector 14 of Panchkula .

Speaking to the media, Hooda termed the development “an outcome of political vendetta” by the BJP government in Haryana. “The decision has come when five states are going to polls and the BJP is not in a strong position. There was no irregularity in the re-allotment and there is no merit in the case,” Hooda claimed.

According to the case, the plot number C-17 in Panchkula’s Sector 6 was re-allotted to AJL on June 29, 2005, in alleged violation of the norms. It was first allotted to AJL in 1982. As the firm failed to build any structure on the plot, Bansi Lal-led Haryana Vikas Party ’s government took back its possession in 1996. It was re-allotted to AJL in 2006, a year after the Congress came to power with Hooda as the CM. Probe agencies have also said that Hooda re-allotted the plot at the price of Rs 59 lakh even though the market rate at that time was Rs 22 crore.

Documents revealed that Haryana's joint legal remembrancer Jagdeep Jain had, on August 17, 2005, strongly opposed the plot's re-allotment.

