ED attaches AJL's Panchkula plot under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached an institutional plot belonging to the Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) in Panchkula under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the alleged land allotment case.

"Since the value of plot fraudulently allotted Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL) has represented proceeds of crime, the ED has attached plot under PMLA Act by passing an order under section 5 of PMLA Act on 01.12.2018," the ED said in an official statement issued on Monday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, on Saturday, filed a charge sheet against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress leader Motilal Vora for alleged fraudulent allotment of land to AJL in 2005.

As a sequel to the FIR lodged by the CBI, a case was registered by the ED under the PMLA by filing an ECIR in 2016. The CBI had filed the charge sheet in the competent court on December 1.

Investigation by the ED has revealed that Plot No. C-17, Sector 6, Panchkula was allotted to the AJL in the year 1982 as per the request of the company to start Nav-Jivan newspaper. As the AJL did not comply with the terms and conditions of the allotment, the Estate Officer, HUDA, Panchkula ordered to resume the said plot on the ground that the allottee, that is, AJL, violated the requisite terms and conditions of the allotment letter by not starting the construction and completing the same within the stipulated period.

Against this order, AJL filed an appeal before the Chief Administrator, HUDA and the Appellate Authority dismissed the appeal on January 3, 1995. Against this order, the AJL preferred Revision Application before the Commissioner and Secretary to Government Haryana, Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana, (TCP) who also dismissed the same on October 10, 1996. After the dismissal of the revision petition, the Resumption Order attained finality. Thereafter, AJL tried to get the plot restored during the tenure of Bansi Lal, the then chief minister of Haryana. However, the request was declined by him.

Further, the ED said Hooda granted undue extensions thrice to M/s AJL for construction on the said plot. The AJL, after the acquisition of the said plot, projected it as untainted property and further acquired loans from the bank by way of mortgaging the same from time to time, it added.