Robert Vadra involved in illegal land deals, hints Dhingra panel

Talking to media persons after submitting the 182-page report to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Dhingra said, “I have named each and every person involved, whether private or government.”

Justice S N Dhingra, a former judge of Delhi High Court, presented the report to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, 15 months after he was appointed to probe land deals in Gurgaon during the tenure of then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. 

While refusing to give details on the contents of the report, Justice Dhingra indicated that he clearly found irregularities in the grant of land licenses in the area.  The land deals became a major issue in 2014 during the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly polls in Haryana.

Asked by newsmen whether the commission found any irregularity, Justice Dhingra said, “Had there been no irregularity I would have given one sentence report mentioning there is no irregularity. My report has 182 pages. Without it (irregularity), I did not have any reason to write 182 pages.”

Asked whether any government official or private persons were involved in irregularity, Justice Dhingra said, “I have probed irregularity in the grant of licenses and the manner in which these irregularities were committed and the persons who benefitted from it.” 

There are charges against the Hooda-led Congress government of tweaking land use clauses to benefit the company owned by Vadra. “I have named each and every person who is responsible whether private or government. Any person who was involved in irregularity has been mentioned (in the report) and role has also been mentioned. Beyond that, I would not tell you who were they and what was the role?” he further said.

The controversy around Vadra is based on a 3.5-acre plot in Gurgaon that he bought in 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore and sold just three months later for  Rs 58 crores to India’s largest real estate developer, DLF. 

The Khattar government had on May 14, 2015, set up the one-man Commission to probe issues concerning the grant of license(s) for developing commercial colonies by the Department of Town and Country Planning to some entities in Sector 83, Gurgaon including mutation of land deal between the firm Skylight Hospitality owned by Robert Vadra and realty major DLF.