CBI to hear Manesar land case on Jan 16

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 17

Arguments over the chargesheet filed in the Manesar land scam could not be held today as one of the defence counsel did not appear in the special CBI court. Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the main accused in the scam.

Now, the CBI court has fixed January 16 as the next date of hearing. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and all other 33 accused in the case were present at the court.

It is pertinent to mention here that Atul Bansal, promoter of Gurgaon-based real estate company ABW Builders, had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case. Alleging a multi-crore scam of prime land in Manesar in Haryana’s realty goldmine district of Gurugram, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had in February last year filed a chargesheet in the land deal against Hooda, senior bureaucrats and others.

The chargesheet filed by the CBI named 34 accused, including senior bureaucrats Chhattar Singh, SS Dhillon and ML Tayal and the realtor Atul Bansal.

The CBI registered a case against the accused in September 2015 following allegations that private builders, in collusion with public servants of the Haryana Government, had bought around 400 acres from farmers and land owners of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurugram district at throwaway prices.