The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned another senior Congress leader and former Union minister Pawan Bansal in the National Herald corruption case. Let us inform that Mallikarjun Kharge was also questioned on Monday in the same case. Sources said that Bansal was called for questioning as he was holding a senior position in Associate Journals Limited (AJL).
In fact, several top Congress leaders are under the scanner of the ED and the Income Tax Department in connection with the alleged corruption cases involving National Herald, Young Indian and AJL. Mallikarjun Kharge was the office bearer of Young Indian, a Congress-owned organization. It runs the National Herald newspaper through Associate Journals Limited (AJL).
In a major blow to the Congress party last year, the Enforcement Directorate had attached assets worth Rs 64 crore in Haryana in this case. It was said that a plot was allegedly illegally allotted to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in Panchkula in the state by the then Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Giving information, the investigating agency had said that in the year 1982, this plot was allotted to Associated Journals Limited ie AJL. But then it was withdrawn by the Estate Officer of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). Because AJL did not comply with the conditions of the allotment letter. Apart from the land deal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also suspects that the multi-crore loan given by Congress to Associated Journals Limited was also in violation of the law.
According to ED sources, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, as the ex-officio chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), caused a loss of Rs 65 lakh to the exchequer by giving land to Associated Journals Limited in violation of rules and against the advice of his own officials. . Sources said that these discrepancies were also flagged in the audit report of the state.