Desk Correspondent , Chandigarh – Panchkula’s special CBI court on Friday discharged former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in a 2005 land re–allotment case, ending a decade long legal battle. The charges involving this case were corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy. The court formally cleared the 78-year-old Congress leader and the company, while also strike down Enforcement Directorate (ED) money-laundering related proceedings. The court set aside the 2021 charges on February 25, ruling that the evidence failed to show any initial sign of wrongdoing.

The case centred around the re-allotment of Institutional Plot No. C-17 in Sector 6, Panchkula. Originally allotted to AJL in 1982 for publishing the Navjivan newspaper, the 3,360-square-metre plot was resumed by the government in 1992 for non-construction and re-allotted in 2005 during Hooda’s tenure at the original 1982 rates of around ₹69.39 lakh. The CBI had alleged in its 2016 FIR that the decision caused huge financial loss to the state as the plot’s market value was then nearly ₹65 crore. However, the court found no evidence of criminal intent or dishonest gain, noting the re-allotment was unanimously ratified by the Haryana Urban Development Authority in 2006 and that government auditors had dropped all objections.

Hooda, who appeared in person before the court, welcomed the verdict saying it vindicated his long-standing position that the cases were politically motivated and lacked any factual basis. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had described the continuation of the trial as an “abuse of the process of the court.” The discharge brings to an end over a decade of litigation for the Congress leader.