CBI court grants bail to Hooda in Manesar land scam
Chandigarh, May 1: In a breather for former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a special CBI court on Tuesday granted him bail in a multi-crore rupee Manesar land scam.
Hooda appeared before the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Panchkkula, adjoining Chandigarh, on Tuesday.
The bail was granted after Hooda furnished two bonds of Rs 5 lakh each through his counsel.
Alleging a multi-crore scam of prime land in Manesar in Haryana's realty goldmine district of Gurugram, the CBI, in February this year, filed a chargesheet in the land deal against Hooda, senior bureaucrats and others.
The chargesheet named 34 accused including senior bureaucrats Chhattar Singh, S.S. Dhillon and M.L. Tayal and promoter of Gurgaon-based real estate company ABW Builders, Atul Bansal.
All three officers were powerful principal secretaries to the Chief Minister.
The CBI registered a case against the accused in September 2015 following allegations that private builders, in conspiracy with public servants of the Haryana government, had bought around 400 acres of land from farmers and landowners of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurugram (then Gurgaon) district at throwaway prices.
The land was valued, at that time, at around Rs 1,600 crore but it was bought by the builders for around Rs 100 crore.
The land was bought in the period from August 2004 to August 2007. The Congress government in Haryana, led by Chief Minister Hooda, remained in power from March 2005 to October 2014.
The CBI alleged that ABW Builders conspired with officers during the tenure of the previous Congress government to purchase the land.
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Man enters SSC exam hall in Beed, assaults schoolgirl and flees; parents livid at security breach
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Beed (PTI): A man entered an SSC exam centre in Ashti in Maharashtra's Beed district on Friday and assaulted a female student, triggering outrage among parents who sought an explanation from authorities over the security breach.
The incident happened at Doithan centre in Beedsangvi at 10:15am, just before the School Secondary Certificate exam was about to begin, an official said.
"He punched the girl and fled before those in the vicinity could overpower him. The parents of the girl, who were summoned to school, had a heated argument with authorities over the security breach. Others supported them," he said.
The girl, who was shaken from the incident, was allowed to answer the exam under supervision, the official added.
How did an outsider manage to come in without being checked and also flee after assaulting somebody, a group of parents asked.
An Ashti police station official said all efforts are underway to nab the accused.
