ED summons Robert Vadra: All about the DLF land deal case in which he will be questioned

The BJP has levelled allegations of corruption and misuse of political power against Vadra since the Congress-led UPA government was at the Centre. What is the case, and how have subsequent governments acted on it? We explain.

What is the case in which the ED summoned Vadra?

It pertains to a land deal between Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality and real estate giant DLF Universal Ltd. It came to light after Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka cancelled its mutation, a process reflecting the transfer of property, in October 2012.

The BJP raked up the issue in the run-up to the 2014 Legislative Assembly elections, which it went on to win. It released a six-page booklet titled “Damad Shree” and referred to Vadra’s other allegedly unscrupulous deals in Rajasthan and Haryana. The party also claimed that the Gandhi family helped Vadra secure the deals when the Congress was in power in the state and the Centre.

What happened under this deal?

Vadra launched Skylight Hospitality in 2007 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh. The next year, the company bought about 3.5 acres of land in Manesar-Shikohpur in Gurgaon from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.5 crore. The plot was mutated in favour of Skylight the next day, and the land title was transferred to Vadra within 24 hours of the purchase. This process usually takes at least three months.

A month later, the Congress-led Haryana government permitted Skylight Hospitality to develop a housing project on most of the land, leading to an immediate increase in the land’s value.

In June 2008, DLF agreed to buy the plot for Rs 58 crore, meaning that in just a few months, the value of Vadra’s property had increased by around 700%. The payment was made to Vadra in instalments, and it was only in 2012 that the mutation transferring the colony license on the land was transferred to DLF.

What was Khemka’s role?

Khemka, then Director General of Consolidation of Land Holdings and Land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration, cancelled the mutation of the 3.531-acre plot in 2012. He was transferred on Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s orders hours later, on October 11, 2012.

However, Khemka completed the probe and set aside the mutation on October 15, 2012, before relinquishing the charge. His order said the assistant consolidation officer who sanctioned the mutation was not empowered to do so. It noted, “the village of Shikohpur was notified under 14(1) of the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948, on August 5, 2011, and transfer of property during the pendency of consolidation proceedings without the sanction of the consolidation officer was prohibited”.

What did the Haryana government do?

After Khemka’s order sparked a controversy, the Haryana government formed a panel of three senior IAS officers — Krishna Mohan, Rajan Gupta, and K K Jalan — to examine the issue. In April 2013, the government gave a clean chit to both Vadra and DLF and instead accused Khemka of “acting beyond the authority vested in him”.

After coming to power in 2014, the BJP-led government under Manohar Lal Khattar set up the one-man Justice Dhingra Commission of Inquiry. It submitted an 182-page report to the state government on August 31, 2016, but it was never made public.

In 2016, Hooda moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging the decision to set up the Dhingra Commission. On the first day of the hearing on November 23, 2016, the government gave an undertaking that the report “shall not be published”. However, sources said that the Dhingra report had recommended an investigation against Hooda, concluding that “his conduct allegedly comes under the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act for giving pecuniary advantage to close associates”.

In 2018, an FIR was registered against Hooda, Vadra, and DLF and Onkareshwar Properties for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud, and forgery, and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Hooda, Vadra, and the Congress party have always denied any wrongdoing.

What is the status now?

The ED took over the investigation and is now probing the land deal.

In 2023, the Haryana government’s affidavit before the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s Bench of Justices Augustine George Masih and Harpreet Singh Brar submitted that no rules were violated in the land transfer to DLF Universal. The affidavit was submitted in relation to the pendency of cases against sitting or former MPs and MLAs in Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh.

In the Vadra land transfer case, the affidavit said: “It was reported by Tehsildar Manesar, Gurugram that Skylight Hospitality sold 3.5 Acre (land in question) to DLF Universal Limited on September 18, 2012 and no regulation/ rules have been violated in said transaction. As per 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.”