The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and several other members of the Indian and Swedish governments, who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB, an arms manufacturer principally financed by the Wallenberg family's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, for winning a bid to supply to India their 155 mm field howitzer. The scandal relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US $1.4 billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with the government of India for the sale of 410 field howitzers, and a supply contract almost twice that amount. It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. The investigations revealed flouting of rules and bypassing of institutions.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda is an Indian National Congress politician who is the current Leader of the Opposition in Haryana Legislative Assembly. He also served as the Chief Minister of Haryana from 2005 to 2014.
Ottavio Quattrocchi was an Italian businessman who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal. Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his proximity to Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi through his wife Sonia Gandhi, is thought to have contributed to the defeat of the Congress Party in the 1989 elections. In 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Quattrocchi in a chargesheet as the conduit for the Bofors bribe. The case against him was strengthened in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the BSI AG bank, London, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million, a "curiously large savings for a salaried executive". In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by India's law ministry, apparently without the consent of the CBI which had asked for them to be frozen.
Delhi Land & Finance is a commercial real estate development company. It was founded by Chaudhary Raghvendra Singh in 1946 and it is based in New Delhi, India. DLF has developed residential colonies in Delhi such as Model Town, Rajouri Garden, Krishna Nagar, South Extension, Greater Kailash, Kailash Colony, and Hauz Khas. DLF builds residential, office, and retail properties.
Bhajan Lal Bishnoi was a politician and three-time chief minister of the Indian state of Haryana. He became the Chief Minister for the first time in 1979, was re-elected in 1982, and became the chief minister for the third time by winning the elections in 1991. He also served as the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Environment and Forests in the Rajiv Gandhi government.
Manesar is a town and municipal corporation, known as New Gurugram City in the Gurugram district of the state of Haryana, India and a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. It is an Industrial Model Township home to factories and industrial activity from multinational corporations.
The Ruchika Girhotra case involves the molestation of 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra in 1990 by the Inspector General of Police Shambu in Haryana, India. After she made a complaint, the victim, her family, and her friends were systematically harassed by the police leading to her eventual suicide. On 22 December 2009, after 19 years, 40 adjournments, and more than 400 hearings, the court finally pronounced Rathore guilty under Section 354 IPC (molestation) and sentenced him to six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000. The CBI had opposed Rathore's plea and had sought an enhancement of his sentence from six months to the maximum of two years after his conviction. Rejecting his appeal against his conviction by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court, Chandigarh District Court on 25 May sentenced the disgraced former police official to one-and-a-half years of rigorous imprisonment, enhancing his earlier six-month sentence and immediately taken into custody and taken to the Burail prison. On 11 November 2010, the Supreme Court granted bail to S.P.S. Rathore on the condition that he remain in Chandigarh. Recently, the Supreme Court of India upheld Rathore's conviction in molestation case but restricted the punishment to six months' jail already served by him considering his age.
Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), formerly Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), is the urban planning agency of the state of Haryana in India except Gurugram and Faridabad which has Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority and Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority respectively. It was established in 1977. The Minister of Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana is the chairman of the authority. The headquarters of the authority is located in Panchkula, Haryana.
Ashok Khemka is an Indian civil service bureaucrat. He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 1991 batch. He is best known for cancelling the mutation of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's illegal land deal in Gurgaon. As of January 2023, he has been transferred 55 times in 30 years by state governments after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted in. He is a whistleblower of several scams that took place under Bhupinder Hooda's regime, including the Robert Vadra DLF land grab scam, Sonepat-Kharkhoda IMT land scam case, and Garhi Sampla Uddar Gagan land scam. Ashok Khemka is Haryana's second-most transferred bureaucrat after another retired IAS officer, Pradeep Kasni, who was transferred 71 times in 35 years.
Sanjiv Chaturvedi is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer posted as Chief Conservator of Forest (Research) at Haldwani in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand. Chaturvedi was a Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS, New Delhi from 2012 to 2014, and served in the government of Haryana from 2005 to 2012.
Forests Department, Haryana is a department of the Government of Haryana, a state in India, that runs and maintains many protected nature areas in the state of Haryana. It has two administrative divisions: Forest and Wildlife. The department is responsible for maintaining National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Conservation Reserves in Haryana. It also provides a special emphasis on Soil and Moisture Conservation works in the hills to conserve water and deliver it to adjacent farmlands. Two National Parks, eight Wildlife Sanctuaries, two Conservation Reserves, four Animal & Bird Breeding Centres, one Deer park, and 49 herbal parks. Kanwar Pal Gujjar has been the cabinet minister responsible for this department since October 2019. constitute the Protected Area network of the department, covering 0.75% of the state. It also maintains a list of Protected Areas in Haryana.
AJL-National Herald Panchkula land grab scam case, allegedly against Bhupinder Singh Hooda currently in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, is under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). This case pertains to Hooda's alleged role for misusing his position as then Chief Minister of Haryana to cause wrongful gains to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and corresponding loss to the Government of Haryana, by illegally allotting a government plot of land worth several crores rupees (billions) to AJL for INR 59 lakh. Then Chief Minister, Hooda, was also the chairman of HUDA, a government entity which re-allotted the plot to AJL in 2005 in violations of rules and against the advice of the HUDA officials. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's BJP government of Haryana transferred the case to CBI, and CBI filed the FIR in April 2016. CBI booked Hooda for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and misuse of official position by public servants. AJL, which also owns National Herald, is controlled by the Indian National Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi among others.
Gurugram-Manesar Industrial Model Township land grab scam case pertains to the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and 33 others for the Manesar Industrial Model Township land acquisition scam. This scam resulted in INR1500 crore loss to the farmers of Manesar and neighbouring village in Gurugram district whose 688 acre land was being acquired at a low rate for "public purpose". This land was later licensed to real estate companies after granting them out of term favours and concessions. Private builders grabbed 400 acres land from farmers at throwaway price based on the threat of acquisition by the government. Once this land was bought by the builders, Hooda government released this land from the acquisition process in the favor of builders instead of the original owners. Market value of this 400 acre land was nearly INR4 crore per acre or total INR1600 crore, which was acquired by the builders at only INR100 crore, causing a loss of INR1500 crore to innocent farmer owners of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages.
The Rohtak-Garhi Sampla Uddar Gagan Model Township land grab case pertains to illegal acquisition and licensing of 850.88 acres land under Bhupinder Singh Hooda's rule as the Chief Minister of Haryana. Hooda acquired land from illiterate poor farmers at a throwaway prices in the name of "public interest" and later licensed this land to builders by granting them out-of-turn favors, which resulted in exponential increase in the land value, causing gains to big builders. HUDA issued notification on 11 April 2002 for acquiring 850.88 acres land for residential and commercial development in Sector 27-28 of Rohtak However, which was later reduced to acquire 441.11 acre on 8 April 2003. A private builder, Uddar Gagan Properties Limited, was granted license by Hooda' government to develop a colony across 280 acres of the released land [excluded from government acquisition], thus accruing illegal gains to private middlemen. HUDA issued notification on 11 April 2002 for acquiring 850.88 acres land for residential and commercial development in Sector 27-28 of Rohtak However, which was later reduced to acquire 441.11 acre on 8 April 2003. A private builder, Uddar Gagan Properties Limited, was granted license by Hooda' government to develop a colony across 280 acres of the released land [excluded from government acquisition], thus accruing illegal gains to private middlemen. Uddar Gagan is owned by Zee.
Sonepat-Kharkhoda Industrial Model Township land case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Bhupinder Singh Hooda. This under-investigation scam pertains to acquisition of 700 acre land in 3 villages near Kharkhoda in Sonepat district for the Industrial Model Township.. Punjab and Haryana High Court in March 2013 and the Supreme Court of India in May 2016 had cancelled the government's decision to release land to the private builder. Two senior officials in then Chief Minister Hooda's office were indicted for allegedly favouring the developers. Subsequently, in 2018 the Government of Haryana referred the case to CBI to investigate the against Hooda and others.
Haryana Raxil drug purchase scam case is a case under investigation by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Bhupinder Singh Hooda for the illegal purchase of Raxil fungicide which resulted in INR80 crore loss to the government. This scam, initially exposed by Ashok Khemka, is also pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Haryana Forestry scam case is a multi-crore fake plantation scam allegedly involving Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kiran Chaudhary and others where government money was embezzled. In 2009, this scam was exposed by the whistleblower, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Ramon Magsaysay Award-winner Indian Forest Service officer with then Government of Haryana, who filed a case in September 2012 to seek Supreme Court's instructions to CBI to investigate the case. Earlier, Haryana Government had suspended him in 2007 for acting against illegal felling of trees and poaching in Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary, but his suspension was revoked by the President in 2008 and the chargesheet was overturned in 2011 on an appeal against the decision of Haryana government. An inquiry committee of the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) found Chaturvedi's allegations against Haryana government true, preferred an inquiry by Central Vigilance Commission and by CBI into dubious role of certain highly placed politicians and civil servants. CBI, in its reply to CVC, found Chaturvedi's allegations against then Haryana Government creditable enough for an independent inquiry. As per the rules, CBI can not undertake suo motu investigation, only state government, high court or supreme court can ask CBI for it.
DLF land grab case is a case related to 50 acre land grab in 2013 in Amipur village of Haryana during the Congress' Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, for which Robert Vadra, Hooda and DLF are being investigated by the CBI. Hooda's generosity towards land sharks and builders caused huge losses to farmers and Haryana Government. Consequently, there are Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiries and court cases against him related to shady land deals. Those deals include the allotment of a highly subsidised land and change in land use license for his relatives and influential friends connected to Indian National Congress, such Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra. Jitesh Vadra made illegal gains of over INR50 crore from this land deal within few months in 2008. CBI has filed an 80,000 page long chargesheet in the court related to this case and Manesar land scam case.
Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), formerly Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC), headquartered at Panchkula, is a 100% state-owned agency of the government of Haryana in the Indian state of Haryana. For ease of doing business, Haryana is the first state in India to introduce a labour policy in 2005 and Land Pooling Policy in 2017, for which HSIIDC acts as the nodal agency. Haryana Financial Corporation provides financial assistance for setting up new industrial units and for the expansion and diversification of the existing industries. Various universities, educational and training institutes, including the nation's first skills university Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University, provide the human resources to capitalise on the infrastructure created by the HSIIDC.
