Panel probing Vadra’s land deals seeks more time

JUSTICE S N Dhingra Commission, which was set up to probe into grant of land licences to some companies, including that of Robert Vadra’s, in Gurgaon during the Congress rule in Haryana, on Thursday sought six weeks more to submit its report hours before the deadline was to end.

Official sources said the Commission has sought six weeks more to submit its report.

Justice Dhingra said he sought more time in order to go through some documents from a person stating “that they are documents of benami transactions of who benefitted from the grant of licence.”

Haryana government had earlier twice extended the term of the Dhingra Commission of Inquiry.

The BJP government in the state had in December last year extended the Commission's term for a period of six months and on June 17 this year its term had been extended till Thursday.

New Delhi, June 30: Robert Vadra on Thursday dismissed allegations of fraudulent land deals against him, saying they were false and that he will “always be used for political gains”. “Almost a decade of governments false and baseless accusations on me! They cannot prove anything without proof, and there is nothing there to prove... “I will always be used for political gains, I know ... But I will walk with my head held high, as in time and with the truth which will conquer incorrect perceptions, that are created about me”, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi said in a Facebook post. Vadra has recently been issued a notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged involvement in a land scam in Bikaner. PTI

REarlier, media reports had said the Commission was ready with its report which would have gone into mutation of a land deal between a firm M/S Skylight Hospitality owned by Robert Vadra and realty major DLF. The 58-crore deal related to 3.5 acre land in Gurgaon's Shikohpur village which was sold by Vadra to DLF.

In October, 2012, senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka had cancelled the mutation of the land deal between Skylight Hospitality and DLF. It was mired by controversy over allegations of undervaluation.

The request for extension came in the midst of a row after Congress alleged that justice S N Dhingra, a retired judge of the Delhi High Court, “has sought favours from government of Haryana, making him incompetent and unsuitable to deliver any verdict or report in the matter.”

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also on Wednesday sought scrapping the Dhingra Commission of Inquiry, pointing out that it was “contrary to established rules and norms, without due cabinet approval and prompted by malice and political considerations”. PTI