india

Updated: Jan 25, 2019 17:08 IST

Hours after the officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided multiple locations related to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the officials of the central agency may have to “answer” when the new government is formed at the Centre after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“Officials must hear this.Governments do not have any permanency. There are few weeks left for the general elections to begin. It is certain this government is rattled. The prime minister is staring at an imminent defeat, that’s why these actions,” Anand Sharma was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

“When the new government resumes office, all such actions, officers and persons who have at the behest of their political masters of today tried to harass, intimidate, frame and defame the political opponents will be held to account and made to answer,” Sharma added.

He reiterated the allegation that the present government is “misusing the central agencies to target political opponents and this is why the credibility of the CBI stands compromised.” He said that the raids on Hooda were an attempt to dissuade the Congress leaders from campaign for the Jind assembly by-poll scheduled for January 28.

The reaction from the senior Congress leader followed registration of a fresh case against Hooda and others in connection with alleged irregularities in a land allocation in Gurugram in 2009. The CBI officials carried out searches at 20 locations in Delhi,Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh early in the day. A team of CBI officials reached Hooda’s residence in Rohtak, Haryana early Friday morning.

The case pertains to acquisition of 1,407 acres in Gurgaon. The previous Congress government had issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act June 2, 2009 for acquiring the land of Nagli Umarpur, Tigra, Ullhawas, Kadarpur, Maidawas, Badshahpur, Behrampur and Ghata in Gurugram for the purpose of development of residential Sectors 58 to 63 and residential-commercial Sectors 65 to 67.

In December 2011, the land acquisition collector finally passed the award for 87 acres. Thus, there was release of about 95% of the notified land for acquisition. In November 2017, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the acquisition process for 1,407 acre and subsequent release of 95% land.