Bhupinder Hooda, AJL discharged in Panchkula land allotment case

A special court in Panchkula on Friday (April 3, 2026) discharged former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in a money laundering case linked to the re-allotment of a plot in Panchkula, after closing the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) case against them.

The order follows a February 25 ruling by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which set aside a 2021 order that had framed charges against Mr. Hooda and others in the case. Congress veteran Mr. Hooda appeared in person during the proceedings.

Special Judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Rajeev Goyal, closed the ED’s complaint, as Mr. Hooda and the AJL, the publisher of National Herald, had already been discharged in the main case pursued by the CBI, Mr. Hooda’s counsel, S.P.S. Parmar told reporters here.

“The court closed the ED case as the predicate had already been decided by the Punjab and Haryana High Court,” Mr. Parmar said. The High Court had set aside criminal charges against Mr. Hooda and the AJL in connection with the re-allotment of a plot in Panchkula.

The High Court Bench of Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya set aside the April 2021 order of a special CBI court that framed charges against the accused, and dismissed their discharge pleas. The court had observed that the material placed on record did not even prima facie establish the essential ingredients of the alleged offences against the petitioners.

It held that there were no sufficient grounds to proceed against them in the matter. “Continuation of prosecution will be an abuse of the process of the court. The impugned orders, dated April 16, 2021, framing charges against the petitioners as well as dismissing the discharge application, are hereby set aside along with all subsequent proceedings arising therefrom, and the petitioners stand discharged,” the High Court order said.

The case is related to the allotment of a plot in Sector 6, Panchkula, by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), now known as the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, to the AJL in 1982.

The plot was resumed in 1992 after construction was not completed within the stipulated period.

HUDA dismissed the AJL’s appeals in 1995 and 1996. After Mr. Hooda became the Haryana Chief Minister in 2005, the plot was re-allotted to the AJL at the original rate.

After the BJP came to power in Haryana, the State Vigilance Bureau registered a case in the matter in 2016, which was later taken over by the CBI. It was alleged that the re-allotment of the plot caused financial loss to the public exchequer.

In April 2021, the special CBI court ordered framing of charges under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Mr. Hooda and the AJL.

Mr. Hooda then approached the High Court challenging the special CBI court order. In 2019, the ED had filed its first chargesheet in the case.