Arvind Kejriwal presents ‘evidence’ of DLF-Haryana deal: A golf course,increased FAR,land acquisition

Alleging that DLF was allocated 350 acres for a golf course in Gurgaon,Kejriwal said: “Three parties applied — DLF,Country Heights and Unitech. The financial bids of Unitech and Country Heights were not opened. They were rejected at the technical stage saying that they did not have experience in constructing and maintaining golf course.

“This condition was introduced at the time of evaluating technical bids. Doesn’t it raise suspicion whether this was done to reject other parties and to grant this contract to DLF?”

Kejriwal quoted from a judgment of Punjab and Haryana High Court reversing the state government’s decision to award 30 acres of land to DLF for an SEZ,when the original reason for its acquisition was to construct a hospital. The court mentioned a nexus between the company and Haryana officials,and said there seemed to be an attempt to give legal cover to favours granted to DLF.

This,the activist alleged,happened around the time when Vadra was majority shareholder in DLF SEZ Holdings Private Limited.

Kejriwal rejected DLF’s clarification,issued over the weekend after India Against Corruption’s (IAC’s) first press conference on Friday,as a “bunch of lies”,raised his estimate of DLF’s alleged “unsecured interest free loan” to Vadra from Rs 65 crore to Rs 85 crore,and compared it to the money allegedly received by DMK MP Kanimozhi,the reference being to funds received by Kalaignar TV from Cineyug Films by a circuitous route.

How was it,Kejriwal asked,that DLF sold seven flats in Magnolia for the price of one,and the value of the 10,000 square-foot Aralia penthouse appreciated by Rs 10 crore from Rs 89 lakh shown in the earlier balance sheet,soon after the matter was raised in Parliament?

The activist lined up farmers from Manesar,Gurgaon and Wazirabad,and claimed that the documents proving his allegations had come from them. Taking a dig at Vadra’s mocking reference to “mango people” (aam aadmi) on Facebook,he said,“These mango people will be the undoing of the powerful in this country.”

To questions on why IAC was not going to court with the documents,Kejriwal said,“That is a decision we will take later. But before that Manmohan Singh and (Haryana Chief Minister) Bhupinder Hooda should resign accepting that their CBI and income-tax departments are dysfunctional and there is a complete collapse of governance.”

Kejriwal asked why senior ministers like P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid had leapt to Vadra’s defence if he was indeed a “private individual” as the Congress had claimed. “Is Chidamabaram the I-T officer of Vadra that he is giving him a clean chit? As per the I-T Act,the finance minister has no powers,and having been in the department I know that whatever has come out in the public domain so far make this a fit case for an I-T raid,” he said.

He demanded that the Haryana government issue a white paper on its dealings with DLF,and an independent probe by retired Supreme Court judges be ordered into the appreciation of Vadra’s assets.

Activist-lawyer Shanti Bhushan challenged the government’s claim that dealings between private individuals can’t be probed under the Prevention of Corruption Act. “This comes under Section 9 of the Act. Section 114 of the Evidence Act gives courts the powers to presume and given the documents that are already in the public domain there is a very strong case,” he said.

Kejriwal invited documents from people on the holdings of “powerful people in BPTP,Indiabulls and GMR”,and announced that IAC’s next exposé would come on October 16.