In a massive development, top sources have told media that the Haryana Governor has given its sanction to prosecute former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) case.

It was in May 2016 that the Haryana vigilance bureau had registered cheating and corruption cases against Hooda, who was Haryana CM from 2005 till 2014. The reason behind Hooda and other officials, all a part of the erstwhile Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), being booked was for allegedly reallocating a plot in Panchkula to ALJ, the publisher of the National Herald newspaper, in 2005. In 2011, AJL’s ownership was transferred to Young India Limited, in which Rahul and Sonia Gandhi are shareholders and directors.

In July 2017, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda allegedly misused his official position and illegally re-allotted a plot in 2005 to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in Panchkula.

The ED had told the court that an affidavit that Hooda allegedly misused his official position to re-allot the plot to AJL and caused “wrongful gain” to it and corresponding loss to the state exchequer.

In response to the sanction for his prosecution, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is also under the scanner in the Skylight hospitality case, claimed that the entire matter was one of political vendetta and agenda politics. He denied that there was any wrongdoing in the case and put forth that he had full faith in the judiciary.

Simultaneously, the Delhi High Court was hearing the petition by AJL seeking a stay on the Centre’s eviction order for the Herald House in New Delhi.