Former Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has suffered a major setback in the Manesar land scam case. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has vacated the stay on the trial in the case. Now, the case will move forward in the CBI Special Court in Panch- kula.
The trial was on hold for almost four years. After the High Court’s latest order, the case will now be heard again. The CBI had already filed a chargesheet in the case against Hooda and 33 others.
The accused include some government officers and builders along with Hooda. In 2019, the CBI submitted a massive 80,000- page chargesheet in the court. The documents were brought in a truck due to their large volume.
On August 21, 2004, the Haryana government had issued a notification to acquire 1315 acres of land in Manesar, Lakhnoula, and Naurangpur to develop an industrial township. The government had decided to pay Rs 12.5 lakh per acre to farmers as compensation. Due to fear of land acquisition, many farmers rushed to sell their land.
Builders became active and started buying land at higher prices. On August 25, 2005, after the next phase of the land acquisition process (Section 6), builders started buying land at around ₹40 lakh per acre, expecting the government to cancel the acquisition.
Just before the notification was officially withdrawn on August 24, 2007, land prices had shot up to Rs 80 lakh per acre. Eventually, 22 companies bought 447 acres of land. After the cancellation, prices crossed ₹1.2 crore per acre.
Alone, Aditya Buildwell (now ABW Infrastructure) bought 248 acres of land. A total of 114 land deals (registries) took place during this period, many of which are now under suspicion.
