IN ORDER to find out the missing links in the previous Haryana Congress government’s decision to initially acquire 1,400 acres land in Gurgaon in 2009 and finally only acquiring 87 acres, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the state government to produce the survey reports of the land and collaboration agreements of private builders and farmers.

The Division Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Sudip Ahluwalia issued the directions on Wednesday during the resumed hearing of the petitions filed by Babu Ram and others seeking a CBI probe into the land acquisition process.

The petitioners had submitted that the state government had on June 2, 2009, issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, to acquire 1,400 acres of land in villages, namely Ullahwas, Maidawas, Nanauli, Umarpur and Kadarpur of Gurgaon. But finally the award was passed for 87 acres only on May 29, 2012. The land on which Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust run by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her family members was established in Ullahwas village was part of the proposed 1,400 acre land.

The court had on the last date of hearing observed, “Where has the land decided to be acquired on 02.06.2009 gone during the acquisition process? What it appears prima facie from the record is that meanwhile a group of private builders entered the field and allured the desperate owners to enter into Agreements to Sell/Collaboration Agreements and procured general power of attorneys from such land owners. Thereafter, these builders-cum-developers in prima facie collusion and connivance with the State machinery, got the land released from the acquisition process. It is for this reason that the proposal to acquire 1400 Acres land stood reduced the requirement of so called “Public Purpose” to 87 acres land only.”

The court had on August 17 directed the Haryana Advocate General, to have instructions whether the state government was ready to refer these cases to CBI.

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