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The Times of India
Title : Vadra made Rs 44cr windfall gain in Haryana deal: CAG
Author : Pradeep Thakur
Location :
New Delhi:
Article Date : 11/02/2014
`Cong Govt Winked At Irregularities'
The comptroller and auditor general has faulted Robert Vadras land deals in Haryana, saying he reaped Rs
43.66 crore in windfall gains because an indulgent Congress government allowed him to do so in breach of law,
and did not insist on recovering Rs 41.51 crore of the profit he made by quickly selling the land to DLF
Universal.
In its first draft report on land deals in Haryana under the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, the auditor has
said that Vadras Skylight Hos pitality Private Limited was allowed to develop a commercial colony when it had
just Rs 1 lakh in its kitty. The department (of Town and Country Planning) ignored the aspect of the financial
capacity of the colonizer, said the report.
The land was soon sold to DLF Universal for Rs 58 crore, with Skylight Hospitality making a profit of Rs 43.66
crore.
The CAG draft report underlines that according to the agreement between the state government and Skylight
Hospitality, the developer was required to retain a profit of Rs 2.15 crore...but in the instant case the firm
earned a profit of Rs 43.66 crore by selling this licence to DLF but had not deposited the profit earned in
excess... ie Rs 41.51 crore in the government account.
Robert loses cool, `attacks' scribe
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra on Saturday shoved a reporter's microphone when
quizzed about his land deals. Vadra, who was at the gym of a 5-star hotel in Delhi, told the reporter, Are you
serious? Are you nuts? Are you the right person to reply to? He asked his bodyguards to get the footage
deleted while storming off. I&B minister Prakash Javadekar said he would act strongly if a complaint was filed.
P 17
The CAG draft report on Vadra's land deals was sent to the Haryana government on September 22 when
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who maintained that no favour was extended to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-
inlaw, was still in office. With the regime change, it is the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government which has to
respond to the audit findings.
The draft report says the Hooda government should have realized Rs 41.5 crore from Congress chief Sonia
Gandhi's son-in-law. Vadra's company had altogether spent Rs 14.3 crore -Rs 7.5 crore towards land purchase
and Rs 6.8 crore on security and licence fees and conversion charges -which brings the profit in the Rs 58-crore
deal to Rs 43.66 crore.
BJP highlighted Vadra's controversial land deals during the campaign for both Lok Sabha and Haryana elections,
with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself leading the charge by raising how the Hooda government reversed
the decision of IAS officer Ashok Khemka not to regularize the land purchase by Priyanka Gandhi's spouse.
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Khemka, who accused the Hooda government of harassing him for objecting to Vadra's controversial
transactions, also questioned the source of Rs 7.5 crore with which he purchased 3.5 acres of land, suggesting
that it was not his own money .
The CAG findings tie in with assertions made by Khemka who was removed as director general (land holdings
and land records) and inspector general (registration) after he raised objections to the manner in which Vadra
acquired the land and later sold it off to DLF Universal at a huge profit.
The report on Vadra is part of a larger exercise CAG has undertaken to scrutinize land deals under Hooda -an
issue which BJP successfully used against Congress in state polls, showcasing his alleged favours to Vadra,
emblematic of the pattern where state allowed the conversion of land use to benefi chosen developers. The audit
which started as a thematic audi in June 2013 focusing on a few cases, has now been expanded to a full
performance audit like the 2G scam and the one done on the Com monwealth Games as per the in structions of
the headquarters.