Retired SC judge may probe Robert Vadra land deals

CHANDIGARH: Within days of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi attacking the Narendra Modi government as a "suit-boot ki sarkar", suggesting it was beholden to big corporate, Haryana's BJP government on Wednesday announced that a retired Supreme Court or high court judge would investigate land deals of Rahul's brother-in-law Robert Vadra.

The announcement was made in the presence of senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had cancelled the mutation of a land deal between Vadra and DLF in 2012, sparking a major political controversy.

"Rahul Gandhi's suited-booted 'jijaji' Robert Vadra's ghotalas (scams) will definitely be investigated. When and how will be decided by the chief minister," said Haryana health minister Anil Vij in a tweet.

Haryana cabinet minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the probe commission will be notified by Friday, after the BJP state executive in Kurukshetra. "We will investigate whatever complaints we get," Sharma said.

Haryana government sources said a number of retired judges were being considered to head the commission. Among them were retired Supreme Court judge and current NGT chairman Swatanter Kumar, former Punjab and Haryana HC Chief Justice and retired SC judge D K Jain, former SC judge G S Singhvi and retired Punjab and Haryana HC judge V K Jhanji.

Khemka had in 2012 cancelled the mutation (title change) of the Vadra-DLF land deal on grounds that the assistant consolidation officer, who had sanctioned the change of title in the revenue record in favour of DLF, was not competent to do so.

Vadra's company, Skylight Hospitality, had purchased around three acres in Shikohpur village of Gurgaon for Rs 7.5 crore in 2008.

After some time, Haryana's town and country planning department had issued a letter of intent to set up a commercial colony on 2.71 acres of the land. Vadra's company and DLF had entered into a sale agreement to sell the three acres to DLF for Rs 58 crore. The sale deed was registered in favour of DLF in 2012.

Sharma denied that the commission was announced to pin down an increasingly aggressive Rahul and divert attention from resentment brewing against the land acquisition bill.

"Who is he (Rahul) after all?" asked Sharma. "He was in hiding for 60 days when Parliament was in session. People of Amethi were planning to lodge an FIR against him," he added.

Khemka was recently transferred to the department of archaeology after his stern actions as transport commissioner against truckers had put the BJP government in a prickly situation.

Asked about the chargesheet against Khemka by the previous Congress government, the minister said, "The government will soon take a decision on the chargesheet. Khemka is a prominent officer of this government. The Congress government had wrongly chargesheeted Khemka in 2013 for cancelling the mutation of the Vadra-DLF deal."