After report on controversial land deal between Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and DlF, all the IAS officers concerned are now maintaining a strategic silence. This includes, those who gave a clean chit to the deal and even whistleblower Ashok Khemka.
None of the officers of Haryana, including Khemka, then Director General, Consolidation, holdings and land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration, who put this deal on question and the panel of three IAS officers — additional chief secretary Krishna Mohan, ACS KK Jalan and Principal Secretary Rajan Gupta, who gave a clean chit to the deal after rejecting Khemka’s charges on the transaction; after enquiring the whole matter, are ready to talk on this issue now.
According to sources in the Haryana secretariat, all the officers have been asked to remain silent on the issue. When The Pioneer contacted the three officials for their comments, who gave clean chit to the deal, they refused to talk.
Khemka who had faced two transfers thereafter from Director General, consolidation and holdings and land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration to MD, Haryana Seeds Development and then again to secretary Archives, also chose to remain silent. “I don’t know anything about the report”, said Khemka. However, Khemka had written several letters to the Chief Secretary of Haryana regarding the issue till date.
"All the officials are under pressure from the State Government, because this deal is linked to Robert Vadra, who is son in law of Sonia Gandhi," an official quipped.
Khemka cancelled the mutation of the sale deed of 3.531 acre plot in Gurgaon’s Shikohpur village in June 2008 in October last year, in which Robert Vadra’s owned Sky light hospitality had entered into a sale agreement with real estate giant DlF for the sale of the land for Rs58 crore.
Khemka, a day after his transfer on October 12 last year and three days before he actually relinquished charge, had asked Deputy Commissioners of four districts of Gurgaon, Palwal, Faridabad and Mewat falling in NCR to “inspect all documents registered from 2005 on behalf of Vadra or his companies in the capacity of vendor (seller) and vendee (buyer).” The committee had said that there was no bungling in the land deals.
The committee was set up in October last year to go into the land deal involving Vadra’s company and DlF in Haryana’s Shikopur village, the mutation of which was cancelled by Khemka, alleging various irregularities.
In its report, all the three officials of the committee- additional chief secretary Krishna Mohan, ACS KK Jalan and Principal Secretary Rajan Gupta had said that “there was no undervaluation in this deal”.
Even an additional chief secretary Krishna Mohan, who headed three member committee who enquired the deal in detail, had also blamed Ashok Khemka that ‘he had acted beyond the authority vested in him by cancelling the mutation of three-acre of land between DlF and Vadra”.