‘Always said it was politically motivated case’: Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Haryana affidavit on Skylight Hospitality-DLF land deal

In 2018, an FIR was registered against then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, Hooda, and real-estate companies DLF and Onkareshwar Properties on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud and forgery and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The FIR was registered at Gurgaon’s Khedki Daula police station on a complaint lodged by Surender Sharma, a resident of Rathivas village in Haryana’s Nuh district. In his complaint, which formed part of the FIR, Sharma had alleged that “the accused conspired with influential builders, ministers and top government officers, misused their positions and committed a scam worth Rs 5,000 crore”.

The FIR also concerned a 3.5-acre property in Shikohpur village in Gurgaon about which Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka had raised a red flag in 2012 when he was the director general of Consolidation of Land Holdings. The Indian Express published a series of reports over the past few years on the financial transactions between Skylight Hospitality, DLF and Onkareshwar Properties regarding the land in question.

At that time, in 2018, Hooda had said, “No wrongdoing took place during my tenure. This is a failed government, they are getting these things done to hide their failures. It is a complaint orchestrated by the BJP. When they could not find anything against me in four years, they did this as a result of their frustration.”

In the FIR, the complainant alleged that Vadra’s company M/s Skylight Hospitality, launched in 2007 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh, had within a year, managed to purchase a 3.5-acre land from Onkareshwar Properties for a sale deed value of Rs 7.5 crore. The FIR says Vadra later obtained permission from the Haryana town and country planning department to develop a “commercial colony” on the land and then sold the developer’s licence and land to DLF for Rs 58 crore.

The complainant alleged that the association with Vadra and Hooda also helped DLF in other ways, such as the wrongful allotment of 350 acres of land to it in Wazirabad.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court is hearing a suo motu matter pertaining to the pendency of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs (sitting or erstwhile) from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. It was in this connection that Haryana filed an affidavit in the high court on the pending criminal cases against politicians in the state, which also included the FIR against Hooda.

Gurugram Inspector General of Police (Crime) Dr Raj Shri Singh, in the affidavit filed before the bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Harpreet Singh Brar, said, “As on date, eight cases registered against MPs/MLAs in the State of Haryana are under investigation and out of the total, six cases pertained to State Vigilance Bureau of Haryana”.

Mentioning the land transfer case, the affidavit stated, “It was reported by Tehsildar Manesar, Gurugram that Skylight Hospitality sold 3.5 acres [the land in question] to DLF Universal Limited on September 18, 2012 and no regulation/rules have been violated in said transaction. As per the report received from Tehsildar, Wazirabad, Gurugram, it was clearly stated that the land in question has not been found in the name of DLF Universal Limited and the said land still exist in the name of HSVP/HSIIC, Haryana”.

Haryana had constituted a new special investigation team (SIT) on March 22, comprising one deputy commissioner of police, two assistant commissioners of police, one inspector and one assistant sub-inspector for further investigation into the matter.