Panchkula, April 4 -- A special Enforcement Directorate (ED) court in Panchkula on Friday discharged former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of National Herald newspaper, in the 2005 case of alleged illegal allotment of a plot in Panchkula to AJL.

The ruling came nearly a month after the Punjab and Haryana high court discharged Hooda on February 25 in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case, holding that the evidence on record did not even establish a prima facie case of criminality. Proceedings against third accused, Moti Lal Vora, were abated by the special court after his death.

Following the discharge in the primary CBI case, special judge Rajeev Goyal also clos...