The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Court in Panchkula discharged former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Motilal Vora while delivering its verdict on the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in the National Herald case on Friday.
Defence counsel SPS Parmar stated that the ED Court has discharged (acquitted) former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda and Motilal Vora in the AJL case. He further noted that both individuals had already been discharged in the parallel Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case concerning AJL.
Providing further details, defence counsel SPS Parmar informed that Haryana’s former Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has been discharged in the ongoing AJL case before the Panchkula-based ED Court.
He explained that the former Chief Minister had been named as a party in the AJL case; an application for discharge filed in the High Court on February 25 regarding the AJL matter had been disposed of, following which the defence filed a similar application in the ED Court situated in Panchkula.
He added that former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had previously been discharged in the CBI case related to AJL, and now he has been discharged in the ED case as well.
He asserted that this matter has now come to a complete close, noting that the individuals have been discharged by both the CBI and ED courts.
He mentioned that these proceedings had been ongoing in the CBI and ED courts for several years, with both cases remaining pending during that time.
He reiterated that the discharge was granted first in the CBI case, and now, the discharge has been granted in the AJL-related ED case as well.
He confirmed that applications regarding both matters were filed in this court, and the individuals have been discharged in both instances. He concluded by stating that while former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Motilal Vora had been named as accused in this matter, both have now been discharged.
