Haryana Government will constitute an inquiry commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to probe into the alleged irregularities during the 10-year Congress rule in Haryana, including controversial land deals involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra. “A commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge would inquire into all irregularities committed especially regarding land deals in the past 10 years of Congress rule in Haryana. A notification in this regard will be issued soon,” said Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma while talking to the mediapersons on Wednesday.
The Minister said, “Haryana BJP will hold a meeting of its State executive in Kurukshetra on May 15 and a notification regarding the Commission will be issued on the same day.” According to the information, the Manohar lal Khattar-led BJP Government is in the last stages of constituting the commission. Vadra was accused of accumulating land in the national capital region (NCR) area during the Congress government in Haryana led by then Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. In one particular deal in Gurgaon district, adjoining Delhi, Vadra's company sold off prime land to realty major DlF for Rs58 crore.
Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who was also present at the press conference along with Ram Bilas Sharma in his capacity as Secretary and Director General, Archaeology & Museums Department, did not wish to comment when asked for his reaction to the BJP Government’s decision to get the land deals of previous Government investigated.
Three years ago, Khemka, who was then posted in another department, had cancelled the mutation of the land deal involving real estate giant DlF and Vadra. Earlier in the day, BJP's Haryana in-charge and national general secretary Anil Jain said, “The Government will surely go ahead with formalising a commission to look into all the land deals done in previous Congress regime in the state. The process of constituting the panel is in final stages”.
On the issue, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tweeted, "The scams of Rahul Gandhi's suited-booted (well dressed) brother-in-law Robert Vadra will definitely be probed, but in what way the probe will be held will be decided by the Chief Minister." The land deals of the previous Congress government had been made a major poll issue of the BJP ahead of last year's lok Sabha and Haryana Assembly polls.
The Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the Haryana Assembly in March had slammed the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime saying that "undue favours" were given to builders, including Robert Vadra's Skylight Hospitality. Vadra's company, Skylight Hospitality, sold a prime 3.5 acre of land in Manesar, Gurgaon, to DlF in 2008 for Rs58 crore. The land had cost his company only around Rs15 crore and was sold to DlF after obtaining change of land use (ClU) and other permissions from the Hooda government.
Vadra earned a profit of about Rs43 crore but did not share the profits with Haryana's town and country planning department. But the Hooda Government had given Vadra and his companies a 'clean chit'. A day before, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while commenting on the controversies surrounding the Robert Vadra-DlF land deal had said, “There is no illegality committed in that. No undue favour has been shown to anyone. I have said this many times earlier also.”