No clean chit, new SIT formed to probe Vadra land deal: Haryana government

CHANDIGARH:  The BJP-led Haryana government on Friday rubbished an inference in some quarters that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra has been given a clean chit in a 2012 land deal with real estate major DLF.

A sentence in the government’s affidavit before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday was read out of context, it indicated, adding a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was reconstituted last month to investigate the land deal between Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality and DLF. The affidavit was a status report on cases against MPs/ MLAs.

The Vadra deal found mention because then chief minister B S Hooda is an accused in the case. The affidavit begins by saying, “It was reported by tehsildar, Manesar, Gurugram, that M/s Skylight Hospitality sold 3.5 acres to M/s DLF Universal Limited on 18.9.2012 and no regulation/ rules have been violated in said transaction.” But it goes on to say that a new SIT was constituted on March 22, 2023 comprising a DCP, two ACPs, one inspector and one ASI for further investigation, the government pointed out.

A spokesperson of the police department said that the case is still under active investigation. “The focus of SIT’s probe is not limited to revenue loss. It aims to expose all those who are involved in the criminal conspiracy for financial gains to certain individuals, and of quid pro quo involving underhand dealings,” he said. IAS officer Ashok Khemka had in 2012 cancelled the mutation of land between Skylight and DLF.

The BJP had in 2014 made the shady land deal a major poll issue. For his part, Vadra said, “I am happy to see a ray of hope in the report given by the Haryana government to the court clearing that there were no wrongdoings in my business transactions.”