New Delhi: The Congress criticised the CBI conducting a raid on its leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday, just days ahead of the Jind by-poll in Haryana, calling it political vendetta.The CBI booked a third case against Hooda, 71, on charges of cheating and corruption in connection with land acquisition in Gurgaon that allegedly favoured private builders. Searches were conducted at 20 locations, including his Rohtak residence.Hooda is already facing CBI probes in two cases that related to Manesar land aquisition and allotment of an institutional plot to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald, in Panchkula. In both the cases, charge sheets have been filed.In the third case, the CBI also named in the FIR additional chief secretary of Haryana Trilok Chand Gupta, who was the then chief administrator of HUDA, along with 15 builders including DLF, Emaar MGF, Buzz Hotels, Ansals. The official premises of these builders were searched during the operation on Friday (January 25).It booked Hooda, Gupta and the builders for alleged criminal conspiracy and cheating under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land.After the raids were conducted, Hooda called the searches “political vendetta”. “They want to suppress my voice, in which they will not succeed. Nothing was found against me,” he added.His son and Rohtak MP Deepinder Singh Hooda said, “The present BJP government is working with political vendetta for the past five years.”Also Read: Search for CBI Director Narrows to 10 Officers With Prior Experience in AgencyCongress MLA Kuldeep Sharma claimed that the raids were intended to stop Hooda from attending a poll rally for the Jind by-election. “It (CBI raid) was to happen and it was carried out with an intention of political ill will in order to influence the by-election,” Sharma said.“The BJP government got this despicable act done in order to stop Hooda from going to the rally,” alleged Sharma, who is MLA from Ganaur.Hooda was to address the poll rally in favour of Congress nominee Randeep Singh Surjewala. The former Haryana chief minister, along with other senior leaders, have been campaigning for Surjewala for the crucial Jind bypoll.The Congress also warned officials of various agencies to be ready for accountability for allegedly working at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to target his political opponents.Senior spokesperson of the Congress Anand Sharma said such actions when the prime minister and the ruling dispensation “target its political opponents by using agencies against them are dangerous for democracy in our country”.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a mindset of targeting his political opponents by defaming them with the objective of muzzling the voice of the opposition and to tarnish the image of their tall leaders.Sharma said the timing of the FIR and the searches are also very clear as it came ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.(With PTI inputs)