Land grab case: FIR registered against Robert Vadra, former CM Hooda

BIZARRE: Robert Vadra Responds To His FIR, Calls It A ‘decade Old Issue’

A first information report has been registered against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in connection with the decade-old Shikohpur village land deal between Mr. Vadra’s company and the real estate firm DLF.

The case was registered at the Khedki Daula police station here on Saturday on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act following a complaint by social activist Surender Sharma. DLF and Onkareshwar Properties are also named in the FIR.

‘Political vendetta’

Mr. Hooda, however, denied the charges saying that it was “political vendetta” by the government aimed at hiding its failures.

In the FIR, Mr. Sharma alleged massive corruption in connivance with the government officials and politicians in the deal. He said Mr. Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality, registered in 2007 with total assets of ₹1 lakh, bought 3.5 acres of land from Onkareshwar Properties for ₹7.5 crore. But Onkareshwar Properties did not encash the cheque and struck a deal with Mr. Vadra to help procure a housing licence through his influence in the Haryana government. The complainant alleged that Mr. Vadra, as the son-in-law of Ms. Gandhi, had considerable influence in Haryana’s Congress government headed by Mr. Hooda.

He further alleged that the Hooda government in violation of the law, granted licence for a commercial project to Skylight Hospitality for the said land and Mr. Vadra sold it to DLF at a whopping ₹58 crore.

Mr. Sharma, in the FIR, said Mr. Vadra’s company did not the meet the criteria for the commercial licence which was granted to it in unprecedented haste. He said that the officers overlooked the laws which proved their connivance.

The FIR further said that then Director General, Land Consolidation, Ashok Khemka, cancelled the mutation of 3.5 acre land, but Mr. Hooda constituted a three-member committee to revoke the cancellation. This, he said, was illegal as only the Punjab and Haryana High Court had the authority to revoke the mutation cancellation order.

Mr. Sharma told reporters that he had given a written complaint to the police on Saturday morning, but did not expect them to register the case so quickly. “The SHO told me that he would carry out a preliminary investigation before the registration of case. However, he called me in the evening to inform that an FIR was registered,” Mr. Sharma said. He said that the Congress government hushed up the matter and the present BJP government also seemed to be acting under the influence of the accused.

The Haryana government had also set up Justice Dhingra Commission in May 2015 to enquire into the circumstances of grant or rejection of licences for development of colonies, group housing societies and commercial complexes in those sectors of Gurgaon for which land of Shikohpur, Sikanderpur, Badah and Kherki Dhaula was used, including the Vadra-DLF land deal.