An FIR was today lodged by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau against the then Chairman and Chief Administrator of HUDA for alleged irregularities in allotment of industrial plots in Panchkula three years ago when the then Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was at the body's helm.
The FIR was lodged even as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar recommended CBI probe into the alleged irregularities during the previous Congress government.
The Vigilance Bureau registered the case under relevant sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act against the then Chairman of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), a post held by Hooda, as also former IAS officer DPS Nagal and two other officials of the authority.
The FIR does not mention Hooda by name but names of others -- Nagal, then HUDA chief finance officer S C Kansal and another official B B Taneja, besides 13 beneficiaries, figure in it, a senior Vigilance Bureau official told PTI.
Hooda dubbed the move as "political vendetta" unleashed by the BJP government. "They (BJP) have unleashed political vendetta against us (the Congress leaders)," the former Chief Minister told PTI while reacting to the development.
He alleged that Khattar government had failed on all fronts and was desperate to divert public attention from its own alleged failures.
With the Vigilance Department registering an FIR in the case, the matter would be referred to CBI, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's OSD Jawahar Yadav said.
Talking to reporters at Ludhiana today, Khattar said, "...The Vigilance report says that norms were not followed and the plots were alloted to favourites and close ones."
He rejected the allegation of "political vendetta", saying "Wherever wrongs have taken place, we are duty-bound to take action. We don't initiate any action by targeting anyone."
Khattar said the state's advocate-general has favoured a probe by an independent agency and added the matter will be referred for a CBI probe.
Outspoken Haryana Minister Anil Vij also said, "This matter will be probed by CBI. Large-scale irregularities have taken place in plot allotments, which were distributed to favourites by the previous regime."
Senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad hit out at the BJP government for targeting political opponents.
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The FIR was registered under various IPC sections including 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 204 (destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), and Section 13 of the Prevention of the Corruption Act, 1988.
The FIR stated that allotment criteria were changed by the then HUDA Chairman. The criterion was changed after the last date of inviting applications had expired, it said.
According to the FIR, ineligible beneficiaries were allegedly alloted plots at rates lesser than the prevailing market rates, causing financial loss to tune of several crore of rupees to the state exchequer.
Questioning the role of the then Chief Administrator, the FIR said he should have found discrepancies in applications and should not have allowed plots to be alloted to ineligible beneficiaries.
Khattar's OSD Jawahar Yadav said that the chief minister ordered registration of an FIR in the case by the Vigilance Department on the legal opinion by Haryana's Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan.
According to the AG's legal opinion, an FIR deserves to be registered against the then HUDA Chairman, besides some other officials.
The AG, in his advice, maintained that the allotment criteria was changed and approved at the level of the HUDA Chairman, the then CM, and most of the beneficiaries got the plots under modified criterion, reasoning it to be sufficient ground to have a case registered against him.
The AG further found it to be a fit case where the state government should consider getting a detailed probe conducted by an independent agency like CBI.
In May 2015, the BJP government had ordered the vigilance inquiry after it received several complaints drawing its attention towards alleged irregularities in allotment of industrial plots. Opposition INLD too complained of irregularities in the matter in a memorandum to the Governor.
The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau later registered a case for regular inquiry in the case in which industrial plots ranging from 496 square metres to 1,280 square metres were allegedly allotted to candidates who were either relatives of the then Chief Minister (Hooda) or those of his close associates and friends.
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Reacting to the development, Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad hit out at the BJP government, alleging that it was targeting political opponents.
"What we call political vendetta is when they work with vengeance, which we condemn. Any action which they initiate out of vindictiveness, we will oppose and fight. We will accept whatever the courts decide, but we will fight political battle and expose them whenever they take any action out of vendetta, be it in Haryana or elsewhere," Ahmad said.
Senior Haryana Congress leader and former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma said, "BJP's agenda is clear, which is to target the Congress leaders... Their action smacks of political vendetta. But they cannot keep Hooda down by such action.
The BJP, however, charged former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda with allotting plots to candidates who were either his relatives or his close associates and friends.
