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CBI raids former residences of Haryana CM Hooda and others in Rs1,500 crore land scam case

CBI spokesperson R K Gaur said the raids were being conducted at 20 locations including Delhi, Gurugram, Panchkula, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Rohtak.

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CBI officials raid the residence of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Chandigarh on Saturday
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In what seems to be a massive search operation, the Central Bureau of Investigation raided 20 locations on Saturday, including residences of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in connection to an alleged land scam case worth Rs1,500 crore.The massive search operation undertaken by CBI was spread across four states and included residences of several senior government officials who have worked under Hooda during his tenure as the CM of Haryana.

"Two computers and some documents containing information of bank transactions were seized by our investigators," said a senior CBI official, adding that searches were also conducted at the residence of M L Tayal, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Union Public Service Commission member Chattar Singh and IAS officer S S Dhillon who served as the director of the district town and county planning department in Haryana.

CBI spokesperson R K Gaur said the raids were being conducted at 20 locations including Delhi, Gurugram, Panchkula, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Rohtak. Official sources told dna that Hooda's two residences, one in Rohtak and other in Chandigarh, were raided by the probe agency in the early morning.

Among other officials whose premises were raided include Dhare Singh, the then Chief Town Planner in department of Town and Country planning, M S Chopra and Randhir Singh, both OSD's to Hooda, Jaswant Singh the district town planner and Kulwant Singh the deputy superintendent of town and county planning department.

The case, registered by the agency in September last year, pertains to the release of around 400 acres of land acquired by the previous Congress government at throwaway prices from villagers in Gurugram and allegedly sold off to private builders. The land was located in three villages Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula was allotted between 2004 and 2007, during the part tenure of both INLD's Om Prakash Chautala and Congress leader Hooda.

According to the probe agency, the Haryana Government had issued notification regarding acquisition of land measuring about 912 acres for setting up an Industrial Model Township in villages Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula of Gurugram area. The accusation against Hooda and other officials is that the land was sold at throwaway prices.

"Land measuring about 400 acres, whose market value at that time was about four crore per acre totaling about Rs1600 crore was allegedly purchased by the private builders from the land owners for only Rs100 crores. The alleged loss to the land owners of village Manesar was of Rs1,500 crores," said a CBI official.

Among the companies allegedly involved in the case are ABW Infrastructure Limited, Innovative Infradevelopers Private Limited and Flair Private Limited
According to sources in CBI, premises of ABW Infrastructure Limited, its founder Director Atul Bansal in Rajokri and his brother Amit Bansal in Gurugram were also raided resulting in the recovery of 22 items of forensic importance.

CBI sources said that investigators have further discovered 17 front companies involved in the land scam. The companies, according to a source, are registered to one address in Delhi. "The companies are under various names such as Beta Promoters, Divya Promoters, NCR properties and so on," the source said.

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