In fresh trouble for former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the CBI has booked him in a case of corruption in the 1,417 acres land acquisition exercise in 2009 in Gurgaon, and carried out searches at 20 locations, officials said Friday.
The CBI teams started searches at 20 locations in Delhi and Gurgaon, including the residence of Hooda in Rohtak.
The agency has also named Additional Chief Secretary Haryana Trilok Chand Gupta, who was then chief administrator, HUDA along with 15 builders in the case, including DLF, Emaar MGF, Buzz Hotels, Ansals among others. Their official premises were searched during the operation in the morning.
The case was registered on the directions of the Supreme Court on November 1, 2017 where the central investigating agency was entrusted to probe alleged irregularities in the acquisition process of 1,417 acres of land between 2009 and 2012 for sector 58-63 and 65-67 in Gurgaon on June 2, 2009, they said.
The government had issued notification for the acquisition of 1,417.07 acres of land situated at sector 58 to 63 and 65 to 67, Gurgaon on June 2, 2009, the agency said.
Subsequently, another notification was issued for acquisition of 850.10 acres on May 31, 2010, the officials said.
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It emerged during the preliminary enquiry that the purpose of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for acquisition of land for ensuring availability of developed land at affordable prices to the public at large and to the economically weaker sections of the society, has not been achieved.
The agency alleged that private builders entered in criminal conspiracy with the then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Chief Administrator Trilok Chand Gupta with an intent to cheat land owners.
In pursuance of the conspiracy, notifications for acquisition of land were issued by the government triggering panic sale of land to private developers at a much cheaper rates than the prevalent market prices, they said.
A large chunk of land was of no use to HUDA still it was covered in government notification, they said.
The developers used their influence to get licences issued for pockets which were not useful for HUDA and those lands were released from acquisition process, they said.
The government had issued notification for the acquisition of total area of 1,417.07 acres in 2009 and 850.10 acres in 2010, they said.
It has further been revealed that during the notification period, approximately 616.40 acres of land was released in favour of developers.
Other builders booked by the agency include