

CHANDIGARH: The Robert Vadra-DLF land deal in Gurgaon may have played a key role in shaking the foundations of UPA-2 ahead of this year's Lok Sabha elections. But the Congress government in Haryana still believes there was nothing wrong in the transaction.

Even as campaigning for the October 15 Haryana elections hits full throttle, it has now come to light that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had in July legalized the controversial land deal between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law owned company Skylight Hospitality and DLF.

With this, DLF becomes the legitimate owner of around three acres prime land worth crores, which the real estate major had bought from Vadra in 2012.

On October 15, 2012, whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka had used his quasi-judicial powers under Land Consolidation and Holdings Act to cancel the mutation of the Rs 58-crore deal in Shikohpur village.

Later, the Hooda government had constituted a three-member panel, headed by then principal secretary (revenue) Krishna Mohan to investigate Khemka's charges. In its report, submitted in March 2013, the panel had not only given a clean chit to Vadra deal but also held that Khemka had acted beyond the authority by cancelling the mutation of land that was sold to DLF by Vadra.

Despite the findings of the panel, the deal was in limbo and its status was not clear. In his letter issued on July 16, Gurgaon deputy commissioner (DC) Shekhar Vidyarthi has said that sanction of mutation of land between Skylight and DLF is legally valid and the orders passed by then DG (Consolidation) Ashok Khemka were "not legally permissible", "zero in the eyes of law" and passed "beyond jurisdiction".

"It has been a history of sanctioning the mutation of land by assistant consolidation officers (ACOs). Had Ashok Khemka's orders been accepted, huge legal complications would have arisen," says the DC letter.

The letter has further stated that the Skylight Hospitality has rightly transferred land to DLF and at present DLF is actual owner of the said land in state's revenue record.

Before making the deal legal, the state government had also issued a clarification on June 19 this year, through DG (Consolidation), through which it was notified that the ACOs are empowered to sanction mutations.

