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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Bangladesh's interim govt revokes ousted PM Sheikh Hasina's passport
Dhaka, Jan 7: Bangladesh's interim government on Tuesday said it has revoked the passport of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 96 others over their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and the July killings.
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 last year when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League's (AL) 16-year regime.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.
Addressing a press briefing here, Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder said, "The Passports Department cancelled passports of 22 people involved in enforced disappearances, while passports of 75 people, including Sheikh Hasina, were revoked due to their involvement in the July killings.”
He, however, did not reveal the names of the remaining individuals whose passports were cancelled, the state-run BSS news agency reported.
