The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the CBI inquiry into the alleged Manesar land acquisition scam, under which over 912 acres of land was illegally acquired in Haryana for setting up integrated complex in the Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township during the tenure of the Om Prakash Chautala government.
A bench headed by justice Anil Dave refused to vacate its earlier order that had asked the builders to maintain status quo with regard to construction of the township. The apex court also refused to entertain the plea of builders in the case after the Haryana counsel argued that the state government has already ordered the CBI probe into the allegations and the investigative agency has already filed FIR in the matter.
The agency has alleged that the private builders, in conspiracy with unknown public servants of the state government, had purchased around 400 acres of land from the farmers and land owners of three villages — Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnaula –— in district Gurgaon at throwaway prices, under the threat of acquisition by the government during August 27, 2004 to August 24, 2007.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier in 2011 restrained the Haryana government and five private developers including DLF from any construction work on the Model Town till further order.
The villagers, in their appeal, stated that most of the farmers were actually cultivating the land which was taken away by the state government at throwaway prices. “In the entire process, the revenue authorities, the bureaucrats as well as the politicians, who were hand in glove with the big private builders, facilitated to divest the petitioners and other similarly situated farmers from their valuable land.”
It further stated that the entire acquisition proceedings were initiated with malafide intention, illegally and in violation of the Land Acquisition Act and all transactions including sale deeds, etc should be set aside as the same were vitiated by fraud.