Special Court closes ED case against former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda, AJL over Panchkula land allotment

A special court in Panchkula on Friday discharged former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in a money laundering case linked to the re-allotment of a plot in Panchkula..Special Judge Rajeev Goyal closed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) case against them in light of the recent discharge in the predicate offence which was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).A detailed copy of the order is awaited..The order follows a February 25 ruling by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which set aside a 2021 order of a special CBI court that had framed charges against Hooda and others in the case.With the High Court quashing the criminal proceedings in the underlying case, the PMLA court brought the ED case to a close..The case relates to the allotment of an institutional plot in Sector 6, Panchkula by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), now known as the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, to AJL in 1982. AJL is owned by Young Indian Pvt Ltd, where Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders.The plot had been allotted at concessional rates for setting up the office of the National Herald and for publishing a Hindi newspaper.The allotment was cancelled in 1992 after construction was not completed within the stipulated period. Appeals filed by AJL before HUDA authorities were dismissed in 1995 and 1996..In 2005, during Hooda’s tenure as Chief Minister and Chairman of HUDA, the plot was re-allotted to AJL at the original rate along with interest, a decision that was later ratified by the HUDA Authority.The matter resurfaced in 2016 when the Haryana Vigilance Bureau registered a case alleging irregularities in the re-allotment and claiming it had caused a loss to the public exchequer. The probe was later taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)..In April 2021, a special CBI court ordered the framing of charges against Hooda and AJL under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code relating to criminal conspiracy and cheating as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act.The Enforcement Directorate had initiated proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2019 on the basis of the CBI case.Hooda and AJL challenged that order before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In its February 2026 judgment, the High Court set aside the order framing charges and discharged the accused in the CBI case after finding that the material placed on record did not disclose the essential ingredients of the alleged offences..Following the High Court’s decision to set aside the charges in the underlying CBI case, the special PMLA court on Friday closed the ED complaint and discharged Hooda and AJL in the money laundering case as well.