Breather for Moti Lal Vora

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, May 23

In a breather for Congress leader Moti Lal Vora, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today observed in the open court that the investigating agency apparently had no intention to arrest him.

The petitioners were seeking the quashing of an enforcement case investigation report (ECIR) registered by the Enforcement Directorate. The ED recently questioned the 86-year-old Congress veteran along with former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Vora, All-India Congress Committee (AICC) treasurer, is the chairman of National Herald Newspaper Associated Journals Limited (AJL). In his plea before the High Court, Vora had alleged harassment at the hands of the agency while seeking directions against the use coercive methods in the case. Directions were also sought “to stop the ongoing ED investigation forthwith”.

“It appears there is no intention to arrest him in the case. Therefore, the prayer for interim relief was not being taken up at this stage,” the Bench of Chief Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar and Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal observed, as the case came up for resumed hearing.

The Bench also gave the petitioner the liberty to file an application in case an attempt was made to arrest him. The case would now come up for further hearing on July 19. The Enforcement Directorate is yet to file its reply to the issues raised by the petitioner.

A battery of lawyers comprising Kapil Sibal, RS Cheema, Tarannum Cheema, Adit P. Subramanian and Arshdeep Singh Cheema appeared for the petitioners.

The controversy revolves around institutional plot number C-17 in Sector 6, Panchkula. It was allotted by HUDA to the AJL in 1982 and was taken back in 1992 as construction was not done in 10 years. The HUDA administrator and the Financial Commissioner (Town and Country Planning) had dismissed the appeal and the revision filed by the AJL against the resumption of plot in 1995 and 1996, respectively. However, when Hooda become Chief Minister in 2005, he allowed re-allotment of the plot to the AJL.

After Manohar Lal Khattar became Chief Minister in October, 2014, the state vigilance bureau registered an FIR into alleged irregularities in the allotment “causing huge financial loss to HUDA”.