Ex-Haryana CM Hooda denies any land scam during tenure

Jaipur : Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda strongly denied there was any kind of land scam in Haryana during his tenure.

"There has been no land scam under my rule in Haryana. In fact, I have not bought even an inch of land in Haryana in my working tenure. I got the land I have as a legacy from my father," he said while addressing a press conference here in Rajasthan on Tuesday.

Hooda and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra were booked on Saturday by Haryana Police for alleged irregularities in land deals in Gurugram.

An FIR was registered at Kherki Daula police station in Gurugram.

Hooda said it is the Bharatiya Janata Party which has devised the plot to name him. The government in Haryana is working with a vengeance, he added.

"Despite being Chief Minister of Haryana for 10 years, I did not indulge in vengeance against any party. However, it is clearly evident that BJP government is playing vendetta politics," he added.

He said although the M.L. Khattar government has formed a special commission to probe the land scam which is yet to submit its report, the BJP government has filed the FIR, he alleged.

This act symbolises how frustrated the government has become. It is taking such measures to divert people's attention from the Rafale jet deal, said Hooda.

Had there been a strong proof on the land scam, he and Vadra would not have been allowed to roam freely, he added.

He also questioned the Centre's silence on the questions being raised over the Rafale deal signed with France by the Narendra Modi government.

He demanded that the Centre should form a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe thoroughly the Rafale issue so that people can know the truth, he added.