Haryana says Vadra land deals above board
26 Oct 2012
Following investigations into land deals by four Haryana government officials, the state government says that land deals between businessman Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and realty group DLF had been conducted according to rules.
According to the deputy commissioners of Guragaon, Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat, the land deals did not cause loss of revenue. The deputy commissioner of Palwal was quoted as saying by the newspaper that no transaction had been reported to be undervalued.
Whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka was allegedly transferred from his post as director general of consolidation on 11 October following Haryana authorities for scrutinising Vadra's land deals with DLF. Before he moved out Khemka had asked deputy commissioners to probe deals between Vadra and DLF, the country's largest real estate firm.
Anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal alleged the "clean chit to Vadra" came as an expected cover up. "Newspapers say Haryana officers give clean chit to Vadra. That was expected. Country wud be surprised if it were otherwise," Kejriwal tweeted.
Claiming that the deputy commissioners' investigation was an eyewash and the ruling Congress and the main opposition BJP were helping each other to fight corruption charges, Kejriwal said the two parties were acting like bhai-bhai (brothers). "Are all these probes merely an eyewash? Time will tell. It wud further prove - Cong BJP bhai-bhai. Now Cong will protect Gadkari and BJP will protect Vadra. Cong BJP bhai-bhai."
"And what happened to Robert Vadra? Does any govt agency have guts to even summon him or investigate him. He is so rt. It's a banana republic," said Kejriwal, referring to the businessman's controversial Facebook post about common people.
