Panel probing land deals in Haryana gets six-month extension

NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI: The Justice S N Dhingra commission, probing land deals in Haryana related to private developers, has been given a six-month extension and may soon summon top builders and developers who may have benefitted from the largesse of the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government.

Speaking to TOI, Justice Dhingra said he may submit his report before the deadline and may soon call private developers for questioning during the course of investigation. He, however, refused to comment whether Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will be called for questioning. Vadra is one of the alleged beneficiaries.

He said the state government granted the commission six months extension on Monday and he was confident of completing the probe within the extended time.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had appointed the Dhingra commission in May to probe alleged irregularities in land development licences granted to private developers in Gurgaon and other parts of the state by the department of town and country planning.

Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had asked the state government to seek refund of Rs 41.51 crore from Vadra on the land he sold to DLF for Rs 58 crore after a review of the licences given to builders. The CAG had raised questions on licences granted to Vadra's Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd.

The CAG draft report had accused the state government of ignoring the financial capacity of Vadra's firm as the licence was granted to it despite the fact that "the paid up capital of the firm was a meagre Rs 1 lakh which was not sufficient to implement this project".

The CAG audit had reviewed all licences given to builders for developing commercial projects in the state between 2011 and 2013. The performance audit of the town planning department showed irregularities in granting of licences to undeserving companies.