Vadra land deal: Former Haryana CM Hooda violated law, says panel

New Delhi: A panel investigating 250 licenses or allocations of plots by former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, including land assigned to a company owned by Robert Vadra, concluded on Wednesday that the CM did not follow the law in assigning land to firms.

According to a report in NDTV, the report by Justice Dhingra says that Hooda acted ‘contrary to the law’ and that licenses were distributed in ‘an ad hoc manner.’ His report is likely to be given to Chief Minister ML Khattar on Wednesday.

Justice Dhingra has recommended action against several government officials and "private persons" who allegedly connived with them, said the report.

Hooda ignored two orders to meet Justice Dhingra, to furnish details of his decision giving land to Robert Vadra’s firm in contravention of the law, said the report. Vadra himself was not summoned by the panel either, instead, a questionnaire was sent to his firm Skylight Hospitality. Senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka, who was the whistleblower in this case, was also not summoned by the Justice Dhingra panel.

The NDTV report quoted sources close to Vadra as saying that ‘Vadra would not run away from anything and would face the challenge’. He has also denied that he indulged in any wrongdoing or accrued windfall profit because his family's party was in power when the deals were made.

“My mandate was to inquire about irregularities in grant of licenses. I have brought to light the manner in which irregularities were committed and the people behind it,” Justice Dhingra said after submitting the panel's findings.

“If there was no irregularity, then I wouldn't have submitted a 182 page report,” he added.

The Vadra controversy is based on a 3.5-acre plot in Gurgaon that he bought in 2008 for Rs 7.5 crores and sold just months later for 58 crores to India's largest real estate developer, DLF. DLF has also denied any wrongdoing on its part.