SC asks CBI to probe the fraud played on landholders in Haryana

The Supreme Court on Monday concluded that certain 'middlemen' and builders got themselves enriched at the expense of landholders and public interest after the Haryana government shelved its decision to acquire land for an industrial township at Gurgaon in 2008.

A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit directed the Centre, Haryana government and the CBI to unravel the truth and go into the depth of the matter as "the smokescreen" of acquisition was created and the builders and private entities made unnatural gains and huge profit by playing fraud on landholders.

The apex court also directed the Punjab and Haryana High Court to decide within two months a writ petition challenging the setting up of a Commission of Inquiry headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice S N Dhingra. The then Congress government in Haryana had faced flak for allowing various companies, including the ones having connection with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, to make huge money in the process.

"There was an unholy nexus between the government machinery and the builders/private entities in devising a modality to deprive the innocent and gullible landholders of their holdings and jeopardise public interest, which the acquisition was intended to achieve," Justice Lalit said in the 97-page judgement authored by him on behalf of the bench.

In 2004, the Haryana government decided to acquire land measuring about 912 acres in three villages namely, Manesar, Lakhnoula and Naurangpur, at Gurgaon for setting up Chaudhari Devi Lal Industrial Township. As landholders were offered Rs 12.5 lakh an acre, a group of builders persuaded them to transfer their holdings at Rs 20-25 lakh an acre. Subsequently, the state government in 2008 dropped the acquisition process and approved building plans of a group of housing societies in 2009.

The court allowed appeals against HC's judgement of December 15, 2014, that had dismissed a plea by 117 landholders for the process was vitiated by fraud. The top court set aside the decision of the state government to drop the acquisition. It directed transferring the lands to Haryana Urban Development Authority and Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation, enabling the landholders to claim enhanced compensation.

"We direct the authorities of the state as well as the central government to reach the depths of such transactions and recover every single pie and make it over to the state government. A complete investigation in the transactions, including unearthing unnatural gains received by "middlemen" shall be undertaken by the CBI," the court ordered.