A Panchkula court on Friday closed the Enforcement Directorate’s complaint against former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and M/s Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) concerning the re-allotment of a plot at old rates.Special Judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Haryana, Rajeev Goyal, closed the ED’s complaint as Hooda and AJL had already been discharged in the main case pursued by the CBI. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had discharged both on February 25.Hooda’s counsel SPS Paramr said, “The PMLA court in Panchkula closed the ED case because the predicate has already been decided by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In light of the Supreme Court judgment in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case, the ED complaint cannot survive because the accused have been discharged in the predicate offense.”In the Vijay Madanla Choudhary case, the Supreme Court had held, “If the person is finally discharged/acquitted of the scheduled offence or the criminal case against him is quashed by the Court of competent jurisdiction, there can be no offence of money-laundering against him…”ED casePlot number C-17 in Sector 6, Panchkula, was allotted to AJL for starting a newspaper on a no-profit, no-loss basis at a concessional rate of Rs 91 per square metre. As no construction was carried out within two years, the plot was resumed, and all appeals were decided by October 10, 1996.AJL wrote four letters to the then Haryana CM Bansi Lal for restoration, but they were turned down and communicated to the Chairman AJL, vide letter dated March 16, 1999.AJL remained silent for six years as the Chautala government was in power in Haryana during that time.After Hooda became CM, Vora wrote to him on April 7, 2005, requesting the restoration of the plot. Hooda, as Chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) bypassed the recommendations of SS Dhillon, then Chief Adminstrator, HUDA, and Shankuntla Jakhu, then Financial Commissioner, Town and Country Planning, and the opinion of Legal Remembrancer (LR) Haryana, Jagdeep Jain, and ordered allotment on August 28, 2005, at the old rates of 1982 at Rs 59.39 lakh. ED’s said it caused a loss of Rs 1.75 crore to the state government.The ED added that not only re-allotment but Hooda, in conspiracy with Vora, also granted AJL extensions thrice to complete the construction, which was finally completed on August 14, 2014.During interrogation by ED, Hooda had said that, knowing the history and contributions of AJL-published newspapers in the freedom struggle and being a member of a freedom-fighter family, he decided to examine Moti Lal’s request and ordered the reallocation. He agreed that extensions were granted to AJL to complete construction.ED even claimed that AJL got the Panchkula plot allotted from Hooda in just Rs 59.39 lakh, but secured loans “fraudulently” worth Rs 72.57 crore by claiming it as “untainted property”. It added that the loans were used to create other properties by pledging or mortgaging them with Syndicate Bank.However, on February 25, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had set aside the CBI Special Court’s order dated April 16, 2021, on framing charges against Hooda and AJL, as well as dismissing the discharge application. The High Court also discharged Hooda and AJL. The High Court said, “…passing an order against the policies, guidelines or opinions and in ignorance of any fact cannot be a basis to attribute dishonest intention to the accused”, and added that “Continuation of prosecution will be an abuse of the process of the Court.”The AJL was allotted the plot in question for the publication of the daily newspaper “Nav Jiwan” in Hindi edition.