Robert Vadra land deal case: Justice Dhingra commission to submit report today

Justice SN Dhingra-led inquiry commission, which is probing a scam involving the grant of licences for Change in Land Use (CLU) in four villages of Gurgaon, including the licence granted to the company Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited owned by Robert Vadra, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, is scheduled to submit its report to the Haryana government on Wednesday, as reported by The Indian Express.

#TopStory Justice Dhingra inquiry commission to submit its report in connection with Vadra land deal case, today.

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 31, 2016 With the report underway, here is an all you need to know about the land deal case. [caption id=“attachment_2850416” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Robert Vadra PTI[/caption] The Scam: It involves Vadra and his company , Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited. According to The Business Standard,  Skylight Hospitality, bought a 3.5-acre plot in Shikohpur village near Manesar and later sold the same plot to DLF at a huge profit. The land was purchased for around Rs 7 crore by Vadra’s company, and was sold to DLF for an amount of Rs 58 crore, as was reported by Tehelka. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was the chief minister of Haryana then, also came under the scanner for granting CLU permission, that according to the Tehelka report, increased the value of the plot multifold. Khemka report: Ashok Khemka, an IAS officer, repeatedly raised concerns over the land deal. He also set aside the mutation of the property sold by Vadra to DLF. Mutation is very important as it changes the title ownership of property from one entity to another. As per the Business Standard report, Khemka in his report had alleged that Skylight in its balancesheets had shown incorrect bank balance and ‘false statement’. Khemka alleged sham transactions that were carried out to corner the huge market premium on account of the commercial colony licence. In October 2012, a probe ordered by Khemka to look into the Vadra-DLF dealings, found no irregularities, with Vadra getting a clean chit by the Congress government in Haryana, as was reported by The Hindu. The report added, Arvind Kejriwal, who also had demanded a probe into the Vadra-DLF dealings, and the BJP had slammed the Congress-led state government. CAG Report: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled it’s report for 2013-14 in the Haryana House Assembly in March, and noted that regularities and exceptions has been made in Vadra’s land case and the property he owned. The CAG  heavily reprimanded the Town and Country Planing Department. Vadra’s company Skylight Hospitality subsequently came under the scanner and the scam gained fresh momentum, as reported by The Business Standard. In response to the fresh claims against Vadra’s company, in May 2015, a commission headed by Justice Dhingra was set up by the BJP government in Haryana, to probe the land deals in Haryana, including Vadra’s land deals. Justice Dhingra Commission: Justice Dhingra retired from judicial service in 2011 after serving as a judge in the Delhi High Court since 2006. He joined the Delhi Judicial Services in 1988. He is renowned for his judgments in the Nitish Katara murder case and the Parliament attack case. This one-man commission was constituted on 14 May, 2015 under Section 3 of The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. It was constituted to probe alleged irregularities in grant of licence(s) by the Department of Town and Country Planning to some companies, including those of Vadra, in Sector 83 of Gurgaon for developing commercial colonies. The Congress party has been crying political vendetta by the BJP. Bhupinder Hooda, who was summoned by the commission, failed to appear on two occasions. He had termed the move as ‘politically motivated’. It was during Hooda’s tenure that Vadra is alleged to have received favours in his land deals. According to Times Of India, Congress had accused BJP of bribing Justice Dhingra, of the Vadra probe panel. The report of the commission though was scheduled to be submitted in June 2016, Justice Dhingra decided to hold back his report. He revealed that he had received certain important documents that indicated some benami transactions, which needed to be examined, as reported by the Deccan Herald.