Even as the Haryana government constituted a judicial commission to probe the land deals of Robert Vadra during the previous Congress rule in the state, the latter went public saying he hoped that the inquiry would not be used "for political vendetta."
In a post on social networking site Facebook on Friday morning, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi insisted that neither he nor any of his associates had anything to hide in connection with the deals.
"An enquiry has been ordered by the Government of Haryana. Let us await its outcome. Neither me nor anyone associated with me, has anything to hide. Compliance of all laws were followed in a completely transparent manner. I sincerely hope, that an enquiry will not be used for Political Vendetta," Vadra wrote in his Facebook post.
Meanwhile, Haryana's BJP government appointed a one-man Commission of Inquiry under former Delhi High Court judge Justice (retired) SN Dhingra to probe the issues concerning the granting of licences for developing commercial colonies by the state's department of town and country planning, subsequent transfer or disposal of lands and change of land use by favouring a few companies.
In its report in March this year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said that the then Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had granted undue favours to builders, including Vadra's firm, Skylight Hospitality Private Limited.
However, the Congress had then insisted that the CAG report did not indict the then state government or Vadra or his company for any violation of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act 1975 or any rules or policy.
Senior IAS officer from Haryana Ashok Khemka, who happens to be the whistleblower in the matter, was the first one to point out and object to this deal. He had consequently ordered Vadra's deals with the real-estate giant, DLF, be scrapped.
Khemka had then claimed that the deals were illegal and stood no chance of being permitted. However, the then government punished the IAS officer by transferring him to an insignificant department and gave Vadra a clean chit.
