Explainer: Why Vadra-DLF land deal is under scanner
Robert Vadra, a businessman and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband, is again facing the heat after being summoned twice this month by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged irregularities in the DLF land deal case. Vadra has termed ED’s summons “political vendetta”.
About the case
The matter relates to a land deal between Vadra’s firm Skylight Hospitality and real estate giant DLF. It gained traction after Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka cancelled the mutation of the deal in October 2012.
Vadra had set up Skylight Hospitality in 2007 and in 2008, it purchased around 3.5 acres of land in Manesar-Shikohpur in Gurugram for Rs 7.5 crore.
After a few days, the then Congress-led Haryana government allowed Skylight Hospitality to develop a housing project on most of the land, leading to an immediate increase in the land’s value.
In June 2008, DLF agreed to buy the plot for Rs 58 crore, indicating a multifold increase in the property price. Vadra was paid in instalments and it was only in 2012 that the mutation was done, transferring the housing colony’s licence to DLF.
Khemka, who was then heading the land records and registration department, cancelled the mutation of the plot after probing the matter. He was transferred to another department soon after.
As a controversy brew, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government formed a three-member panel to enquire into the matter. In 2013, it gave a clean chit to both Vadra and DLF and blamed Khemka for exceeding his authority.
What after 2014
In 2014, after the BJP government came to power in Haryana, it set up the Justice Dhingra probe panel. He submitted a 182-page report to the state government on August 31, 2016, but it was never made public.
In 2018, an FIR was registered against Hooda, Vadra, DLF and Onkareshwar Properties (from whom the property had been purchased by Skylight Hospitality) for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud and forgery, and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Hooda, Vadra and the Congress party have denied any wrongdoing.
Current status
The ED took over the investigation and is now probing the land deal. In 2023, the Haryana government’s affidavit before a Punjab and Haryana High Court Bench submitted that no rules were violated in the land transfer to DLF.
India