FIR against Robert Vadra shows Haryana govt's 'seriousness', efforts on to speed up inquiry in Gurugram land deals case

It could be a plain coincidence that there are striking similarities between the content of the FIR registered against Robert Vadra and the allegations made in the Damad Shree booklet the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had released in the run-up to 2014 parliamentary elections. On Saturday, the Khedki Daula Police in Gurugram had filed the FIR against Vadra , former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and two companies, including Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality, on a complaint filed by one Surender Sharma alleging irregularities in land deals. Vadra graced the cover of the Damad Shree booklet, with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the background of the photograph. It began with details of Skylight’s registration in November 2007 with an equity of Rs 1 lakh and allegations that the company bought 3.51 acres in Shikohpur village in Gurugram’s Sector 83 with a “false cheque” worth Rs 7.5 crore to Omkareshwar Properties — the other company named in the FIR — in February 2008. It goes on to mention that Skylight sold the plot to DLF in August 2008 for Rs 58 crore after getting its land use certificate [caption id=“attachment_4152727” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sonia Gandhi with daughter Priyanka Gandhi and son-in-law Robert Vadra. PTI[/caption] Sharma’s complaint against Vadra has the same content. One can say that as the ‘facts’ of the case remain the same, the complaint and the subsequent FIR registered by the police have similar charges. However, it is significant to note that the FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a civilian, not any state agency, and the timing, as well. This may have consequences, both political and otherwise. It is also worth noting that though state agencies have been investigating the Gurugram land deals involving Vadra for several years, none of them registered a criminal case against Vadra and Hooda. The former director general of Consolidation of Land Holding, Haryana, Ashok Khemka, had red-flagged the matter and made it public in 2012, and the Justice SN Dhingra Committee had submitted its report on the case to the government early last year, but neither led to an FIR. However, during the course of the investigation and trial, the Dhingra Committee and Khemka’s reports can be used to substantiate the case against Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law. The problem for the Congress is that the FIR is a double whammy, with both Vadra and Hooda named as accused. The charges against them are quite serious : Sections 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Although no connection between the complainant and the BJP has been proved yet, it would be too much to believe that an ordinary citizen would land at a police station and file a complaint of this nature against persons of the stature of Vadra and Hooda and a company as large as DLF. Moreover, it could also be a matter of chance that the day the FIR was filed against Vadra in Gurugram, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was in the city. But Khattar’s aide said he was there to attend a scheduled official programme. The question is whether the case was registered against Vadra purely on an initiative of a conscientious individual, or whether it came after due deliberations by the powers that be. Either way, the BJP can now claim that after over four years since it released the Damad Shree booklet, a BJP government in Haryana had made a substantive move for the law to take its own course. Firstpost has learnt from reliable sources in the government that after going soft on Vadra for four years, efforts are now on to speed up the investigation against him. A senior Union minister said: “No one will be spared. Tough action will be taken against violators of the law.” Another senior BJP leader said, “More such action against Vadra is going to follow. I understand that some work is in progress in the matter.” A few leaders in the ruling BJP believe that the Haryana government’s willingness to let a private individual file a complaint against Vadra and Hooda reflects “seriousness”. Investigations into Vadra’s allegedly dubious land deals in Bikaner in Rajasthan — inked when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power at the Centre and the Ashok Gehlot government ruled the state — are now gaining momentum, as well. Volumes of research and media reports indicating Vadra and the Gehlot government’s alleged complicity have been published about those land deals. However, state agencies have not taken any substantive action, so far. In August 2017, 18 cases registered by the Rajasthan Police, including one against Vadra, were transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. An official said that a review of documents reveals startling facts such as alleged forgery of documents, plots of land passing through multiple hands and the use of proxies to extract maximum profit in the real estate business. In February, the Enforcement Directorate had searched the premises of Vadra’s associates. The agency had earlier arrested two people —Jaiprakash Bagarwa and Ashok Kumar — under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the same case. Kumar, said to be the driver of Congress leader and Vadra’s aide Mahesh Nagar, was allegedly used as a proxy for Vadra to purchase large chunks of land in Rajasthan. Sources also attach meaning to a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday while inaugurating the Indian Post Payments Bank . He had said that when phone banking was unfamiliar to most people, the “naamdar” — a term he has been using for the Congress’ first family — had begun the practice of getting loans disbursed to their favorites through phone calls. Modi had also said that action against 12 defaulters, to whom big loans were disbursed before 2014, has been initiated, and every single penny will be recovered. The prime minister’s statement and its timing sparked speculations in power corridors about whether he was also hinting at Vadra’s role in a defaulting industrialist’s loans being sanctioned over the phone.