CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has decided to extend the scope of Justice S N Dhingra Commission probing into the land deals of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.
A decision to this effect was taken during a State cabinet meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.
The one-man Commission is looking into the issue of licences for developing commercial colonies in Sector 83, Gurgaon, during the previous Congress regime.
Giving details, Haryana Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar said the Dhingra Commission would now cover licences issued in four villages of Gurgaon district namely Sihi, Sikohpur, Kherki Daula and Sikanderpur Badha.
He said the panel would also look into licences issued for development of all types of colonies in the four villages and not just commercial colonies.
Not only Sector 83, but Sectors from 78 to 86 would come under the ambit of Dhingra Commission’s inquiry, Dhankar said.
Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality, had sold a prime 3.50 acre piece of land in Sikohpur to DLF in 2008 for Rs 58 crore. The land had, however, only cost his company around Rs 15 crore and was sold to DLF after obtaining Change of Land Use and other permissions from the Hooda Government.
Now the commission would look into land deals in Sikohpur.
It would also probe the subsequent transfer or disposal of licences, allegations of private enrichment and ineligibility of beneficiaries under the rules.
The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report in March had attacked the previous Congress Government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda for giving undue favours to builders, including Skylight Hospitality.
In its report for 2013-14, then tabled in the State Assembly, the CAG had come down heavily on the Town and Country Planning Department.
“The department neither at the time of granting in-principle approval nor at the time of formal approval for transfer of licences ensured that the net profit beyond 15 per cent of the total cost accrued to the public exchequer,” the CAG report had stated.
During the previous regime, senior state bureaucrat Ashok Khemka had ordered scrapping of the Vadra land deal terming it illegal. He had then alleged that DLF-Vadra land deal caused loss of crores of rupees to the state exchequer. Khemka had also called for a probe into all land deals of Vadra and his companies since 2005. But the then government gave Vadra a clean chit and instead chargesheeted Khemka for his actions.