But ‘private transactions’, especially those involving unexplained surges in income and real estate assets routinely attract scrutiny, as Anand Chauhan’s case amply demonstrates. Surely DLF, being a listed firm, could have attracted a SEBI inquiry at the very minimum? When I went on to further expose the then Haryana Chief Minister, B. S. Hooda’s role in violating process to accommodate Robert Vadra’s land deals in a series of articles, that additional evidence also met with dismissal.



In its Report of Social, General and Economic Sectors (Non-PSUs) for the year ended 31 March 2014, the CAG went on to independently corroborate my charges of illegality in the Vadra scandal. It further highlighted that in the case of Vadra’s firm Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, the fraudulently obtained land was sold to its collaborator DLF Universal Ltd at 7.73 times the original cost after the in-principle approval for transfer of license was granted in April 2012. Although net profit beyond 15 per cent of the total cost accrues to the public exchequer, the Department of Town and Country Planning, Haryana did not ensure that this money was deposited, neither at the time of granting in-principle approval nor at the time of formal approval for transfer of licenses. This deprived the state exchequer of sizeable revenue.