CHANDIGARH: The one-man Justice SN Dhingra Commission of Inquiry probing land deals and irregularities in issuance of licenses to developers, including Skylight Hospitality promoted by Robert Vadra and DLF, has issued summons to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to appear before it on March 25. Vadra is the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The Commission on Wednesday had asked Hooda to appear before it by March 23 and record his statement regarding the allotment of land to Skylight Hospitality. Hooda cited the ongoing Haryana Assembly sessions as a reason to have the date pushed to after Holi. Hooda will be the first politician to have received a summons to appear before the Commission.
“I will appear (before the Commission) on March 25 as I have been summoned,” Hooda told reporters on Thursday.
Asserting that he had not done anything illegal, Hooda questioned the intention of the BJP government behind the formation of the Commission.
“I have not done anything wrong...everybody knows the intention of the (BJP) government,” he said.
Last month, the Commission had summoned Haryana Chief Secretary Deepinder Singh Dhesi and officials of the private firms to record their statements. Earlier, it had summoned retired IAS officer and member of Union Public Service Commission Chattar Singh, Principal Secretary to Hooda when he was CM.
It had also questioned Additional Chief Secretary of Transport DS Dhillon last month as he was Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary of Town and Country Planning during Hooda’s tenure as CM.
Since being set up by the BJP government in May 2015, the scope of the Commission’s inquiry has been broadened on Justice Dhingra’s advice. Under the commission’s scanner are alleged irregularities in issuance of licenses to developers in Gurgaon’s Sectors 78 to 86, which include Sikohpur. The term of the Commission expires in June, 2016
Skylight Hospitality, had sold a 3.50-acre piece of prime property in Sikohpur to DLF in 2008 for `58 crore. The land had, however, only cost his company close to `15 crore and had been sold to DLF after Change of Land Use and other permissions had been obtained from the Hooda government. Over 200 colony licenses were reportedly granted by the previous Congress government in these sectors.