Irregularities in Robert Vadra-DLF land deal, says Justice SN Dhingra; submits probe report to Haryana govt

"I wouldn't have written a 182-page report about nothing", Dhingra said on Wednesday, responding to a query about whether he had found irregularities.

Updated: August 31, 2016 5:06 PM IST

By India.com News Desk

Irregularities in Robert Vadra-DLF land deal, says Justice SN Dhingra; submits probe report to Haryana govt

Gurgaon, August 31: The Justice S.N. Dhingra Commission of Inquiry, set up by the Haryana government last year to probe Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s controversial land deals on Wednesday submitted its report to the state government. The term of the Justice Dhingra Commission was extended on June 30 for eight weeks by the Haryana government, amid controversy over its legal validity. This comes a day after Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, who allegedly granted special favours to Vadra and his firms to acquire land in Haryana, said that the case was being pursued as a ‘witch hunt’ against him.

Speaking about the 182-page report, Justice Dhingra told the media that there were indeed some irregularities in granting of licenses by the Bhupinder Hooda government. “I wouldn’t have written a 182-page report about nothing”, Dhingra said on Wednesday, responding to a query about whether he had found irregularities. However, he refused to reveal anything further about the contents of the report, saying that he cannot reveal the persons mentioned in his report or the roles that they played in the case. Responding to a question on accusations of bribery, levelled against him, Dhingra said that he would refrain to comment. Meanwhile, Hooda had alleged that the report was unconstitutional and politically motivated, reiterating that no special favours had been extended to Vadra, or any other company, under his regime. ALSO READ: Robert Vadra land deal case: ED issues summons to firm linked in Rajasthan land deal

“Not only in Sector 83 of Gurgaon, but across the state, no extraordinary favours were given to anybody,” Hooda told the Indian Express on Tuesday. Talking about the legal validity of the Commission, Dhingra said, “If you know the law of this country, any law that is perfectly legal, can also be challenged right up to the SC.” Hooda, along with Robert Vadra were summoned by the Commission but had refused to join the probe. The one man commission to probe the controversial land deals in Haryana, including those of Vadra and his firms, had been setup by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in May last year. The Commission probed the licenses granted to Vadra’s companies, as well as other firms, for developing commercial properties in prime locations in Gurgaon.  

The scope of the Commission was expanded last year in August, when it was asked to probe all licenses granted to colonisers and private individuals in four villages of Gurgaon, by Congress government lead by Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It was alleged that Vadra’s firm Skylight Hospitality was granted a license by the Hooda government, despite the firm not being able to submit documents on financial adequacy. This was pointed out by a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. In media reports earlier this month, sources had said that the panel report wanted FIR against Robert Vadra in six separate cases of Land Grab in Haryana.

Vadra had come under the scanner when Arvind Kejriwal, along with his former aide Prashant Bhushan held a press conference in 2012, alleging that he had purchased at least 31 properties worth over Rs 300 crore, mostly in New Delhi. The chief of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bhushan had alleged that the loans for the purchase of the properties had come from DLF Limited, which granted him ‘unsecured interest-free loans’.  They also alleged that the bulk of properties which were actually purchased from the real estate firm itself, were sold to Vadra, at a price that was far below the market price. Kejriwal and Bhushan had also released copies of documents from the ministry of corporate affairs showing that Vadra was indeed the owner of companies, which owned the properties and also demanded an independent inquiry into the case.

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