On Tuesday, the CBI Special Court said it has received approval to prosecute Hooda and BB Taneja, a former Deputy Superintendent of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (now Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran). Approval under Section 197 of the CrPC has also been granted for retired IAS officer DPS Nagal, who was then HUDA’s Chief Administrator. However, approval under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act is still pending. The court also noted that prosecution sanction against SC Kansal, former Chief Controller of Finance in HUDA, is yet to be received.
The matter began with a writ petition titled SK Jain vs State of Haryana, filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2014, challenging the allotment of industrial plots. While the case was ongoing, the State Vigilance Bureau of Haryana (now the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau) filed an FIR on December 19, 2015, against Hooda, Nagal, Kansal, Taneja, and the plot allottees.
Later, the case was transferred to the CBI, which filed its own FIR on May 19, 2016. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also registered a case and submitted a chargesheet on February 15, 2021, against Hooda and others.
On May 15, 2024, a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act put the ED proceedings on hold until the CBI filed its final report. Now that the chargesheet has been submitted, the ED case is likely to move forward again.
At the time of the allotments, Hooda was serving as Chief Minister and was also the chairman of HUDA. Applications for 14 industrial plots were invited between December 7, 2011, and January 6, 2012. However, after the deadline, the selection criteria were allegedly altered on January 24, 2012. The weight given to experience, qualifications, and financial capacity was reduced, while marks for interviews were increased. According to the ED, plots worth ₹30.34 crore were allotted for just ₹7.85 crore, leading to a major loss to the government. A total of 582 applicants had applied for the 14 plots.