Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while replying to a question on CBI charge sheet against Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Manesar land deal case, quoted the scriptures saying, "As you sow so shall you reap" on 4 February in Rohtak. He said the central probe agency registered a case and filed the charge sheet only on the basis of solid evidence.
“Gita, the holy book of knowledge and wisdom, says ‘jaisa karm karogey, waisa he phal paogey’ (as you sow so shall you reap),” Khattar said at a Rahgiri programme.
According to an official release, the chief minister said, "Earlier, the accused were ready to undergo any kind of investigation. But now, that the CBI has moved into the matter, they are crying vendetta,” reported PTI.
"Those who have done wrong will certainly get punished. According to our Constitution, be it small or big, all are equal before the law," he said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a chargesheet against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and 33 others in the Manesar land deal case, officials said on Friday, 2 February.
The agency had filed the chargesheet under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and cheating, and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.
Former UPSC member Chattar Singh, who was a senior officer in the Haryana government at that time, has also been named in the chargesheet as an accused, they said.
According to ANI, the CBI also found money trail of Hooda’s relatives in connection to the case.
The CBI has alleged in its FIR that land measuring about 400 acres, whose market value at that time was above Rs 4 crore per acre, was allegedly purchased by private builders and others from innocent land owners for only about Rs 100 crore in collusion with government officers.
The CBI had said that a loss of Rs 1,500 crore was allegedly caused to the land owners of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages of Gurgaon.
The agency registered the case in September 2015 on allegations that private builders, in conspiracy with public servants of the Haryana government, had purchased the land at meagre rates showing the threat of acquisition by the government, during the period between 27 August 2004 and 24 August 2007.
In this process, the Haryana government had initially issued a notification under the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring land measuring about 912 acres for setting up of an industrial model township, it had said.
After the land had allegedly been grabbed from their owners by private builders under the threat of acquisition at meagre rates, the government issued a fresh notification in 2007 and put the land out of the acquisition process, the agency had said.
In a press release on Friday, the CBI added that, “further, this land was released in violation of the government policy, in favour of the builders, their companies and agents, instead of the original land owners”. It also said:
Investigation has also revealed that this decision was taken on a representation given by a private builder, which contained the alleged forged signatures of few villagers.
(With inputs from PTI.)