ED grills ex-Haryana CM Hooda in AJL land allotment case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for over four hours here in connection with the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) land allotment case.

Hooda will further appear before the ED officers to record his statement in the afternoon on Friday.

The case pertains to an alleged fraudulent allotment of land in Panchkula to AJL, a group which runs the National Herald newspaper and is reportedly linked to senior Congress leaders.

Hooda is also scheduled to appear before a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court for hearing in connection with the Manesar land scam case.

The special court is also hearing the AJL land allotment and the next hearing is scheduled on August 6.

In December last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Hooda and Congress leader Motilal Vora for misusing power to allot the land in 2005.

In May this year, the ED attached the plot in question under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency, in a statement, had said that Hooda misused his official position and allotted the plot in the guise of re-allotment at an under-valued price to AJL.

The market value of the plot was Rs 64 crores 93 lakh rupees but Hooda gave it away for Rupees 59 lakh 39 thousand rupees, the ED had said.

The CBI had taken over the investigations in the case and registered an FIR, on the basis of which the ED filed a PMLA complaint in the case in 2016. Criminal FIRs were also filed by the state vigilance bureau.