A special CBI court in Panchkula today granted bail to former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the multi-crore Manesar land deal case. The court granted bail to him on two sureties of Rs 5 lakh each.
Hooda along with his son and Rohtak MP Deepinder Hooda had appeared in the court. Besides, several Congress MLAs and leaders were present outside the court. Former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma was also among those who were present in the court to support Hooda.
On April 18, the court had exempted Hooda from personally appearing before the court on health ground. The CBI court had on April 16 summoned him.
The CBI had in February filed a chargesheet against 34 accused including Hooda. Besides Hooda, the others who were named as accused by the CBI are senior bureaucrats Chhattar Singh, SS Dhillon and ML Tayal. All three were Principal Secretaries to Hooda during his tenure as the CM of Haryana.
The chargesheet had also named the promoter of Gurugram-based real estate firm ABW Builders, Atul Bansal. The CBI had charged them under Sections 120-B, 420 of IPC and various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case was filed in September 2015 by the CBI. They are accused of being involved in a conspiracy with private builders in buying 400 acres of land from farmers in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurugram on cheap rate. The land was bought between August 2004 and 2007. The land was valued around Rs 1,600 crore at that time but was bought for around Rs 100 crore by builders.
Hooda was the Chief Minister of Haryana from March 2005 to October 2014.