BJP government in Haryana will probe Robert Vadra’s land deals, hints Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday indicated that the soon-to-be-formed BJP government in Haryana will order a probe into the land deals of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, in the first clear sign that BJP's takeover of power at the Centre and in states might impinge on the comfort of Congress's first family.

"I, prima facie, see a case where somebody starts with negligible capital, a certain amount of favours are granted to him, there are sweetheart deals as a result of which within a matter of months or years, a no-capital transaction helps him raise hundreds of crores of assets. This is not normal course of business, it is a little out of ordinary," Jaitley told a TV channel, putting an investigation into Vadra's land deals right on top of the agenda of Manohar Lal Khattar-led government which will be sworn in on September 26.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made Vadra's deals a major campaign issue in the just-concluded assembly elections, following through his party's attack on Sonia's controversial son-in-law during the Lok Sabha elections.

Jaitley's remarks were the first strong indication that the regime change in Haryana could have direct consequences for Vadra. While the BJP government in Rajasthan is already probing Vadra's land transactions in the state, it is his deals in Haryana which are seen as more vulnerable to probe by an unsympathetic government.

Haryana's IAS officer Ashok Khemka has alleged that Priyanka Gandhi's spouse received illegal favours from the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government. Significantly, senior officials in Haryana feel the new government is legally competent to reverse the decisions taken by its predecessor.

Senior BJP leader and freshly-elected MLA Anil Viz had said on Tuesday that the Khattar government would probe the decisions which the Hooda regime took to provide irregular benefits to Vadra, but Jaitley's comments suggested that BJP could indeed be serious about it.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi lashed out at the statement as aimed at influencing the agencies. "We would have expected that such a high functionary (Jaitley) should not in any manner make comments pre-judging the merits of the issue. Such comments send a clear signal to the state and central authorities and completely obstruct a free and fair investigation. In any event, five months of Modi-led CBI and 12 months of Rajasthan government have unearthed no such illegality," he said.

Singhvi added these were matters for investigating agencies and "not for the virtual No.2 in the government".