Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has moved the Punjab and Haryana high court, questioning a recent order passed by a special ED judge hinting at the framing of charges against him in the money laundering case in Panchkula's Associated Journal Limited plot allotment case. Terming the Panchkula's Associated court's July 5 order as "highly arbitrary and objectionable", Hooda has contended that the special ED judge Panchkula "has made up his minds to frame charges in the case" and he has grave apprehensions on the fairness of the trial" in view of these circumstances. Hooda's petition in HC challenging the order, filed through senior advocate R S Cheema, is expected to come up for hearing on Wednesday Hooda has also sought directions to set aside the ED FIR against him in connection with the allotment of plot of AJL in Panchkula. The Maharashtra government has told the Bombay high court that US digital forensics firm arseal Consulting, which claimed evidence had been planted on electronic devices of some accussed persons in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case, had no locus standi to give its opinion without a court order. The Maharashtra government made the submission in an affidavit filed in the HC on July 1 which was taken on record on Tuesday. The affidavit was filed oposing a writ petition of activist Rona Wilson, one of the accused persons, seeking that the FIR and the chargesheet against him in the case be quashed. Wilson is one of the accused persons, on whose computer, an incriminating letter was "planted" as per an Arsenal report released earlier this year. In its affidavit, the state government has said that while conducting raids at the homes of Wilson and other accused in 2018, the Pune police the then prosecuting agency in the case.
