Robert Vadra in trouble as Haryana govt finalises panel to probe land deals

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Haryana government is all set to tighten its noose on Sonia Gandhi’s daamad ( son-in-law) Robert Vadra as the state's chief minister is in the process of constituting a high-powered panel to probe the alleged illegal land deals in Haryana during the Congress regime led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.According to a report in Economic Times, the Haryana government is in the final stage of setting up a panel, which, is expected to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Swatanter Kumar."We are surely going ahead with forming a commission to look into all the land deals, if we spot any abberation, the panel will look into it. Right now the commission is in the formative stage," BJP's Haryana in-charge and national general secretary Anil Vij told the Economic Times.[caption id="attachment_2174173" align="alignleft" width="380"] PTI[/caption]"A probe will be initiated against 'Rahul's suited booted brother in law'," added Vij.In March, CAG had alleged that the Hooda government granted "undue favours" to builders, including Vadra's firm, Skylight Hospitality. At the time, Congress had insisted that the CAG report has neither indicted the former Congress government of Haryana or Robert Vadra or his Skylight Hospitality Private Limited for any violation of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, or any rules or policy.Under the deal which had been under scrutiny for the last few years, Vadra's company, Skylight Hospitality, had allegedly sold a prime 3.5 acre piece of land in Manesar in Gurgaon district to DLF in 2008 for Rs 58 crore when the land had only cost his company around Rs 15 crore, earning a cool profit of around Rs 43 crore. It was sold to DLF after obtaining change of land use (CLU) and other permissions from the Hooda government.Senior IAS officer and the then Haryana Director, General Consolidation, Ashok Khemka, who was the first one to point out and object to this deal, had also ordered its scrapping. Khemka, who has been proved right now by the CAG, had claimed at that time that the deal was illegal and stood no chance of being allowed. However, the previous Hooda government gave a clean chit to Vadra in the land deal.An India Today report, quoting party sources, said BJP is in no mood to ease the pressure on land grabbers even if it found that its own members or ministers figured among the wrong-doers or had collaborated with the Hooda regime.Meanwhile, Congress has said that the BJP is playing politics of revenge. NCP’s Majid Memon and DP Tripathi told ANI that the BJP government should not just target Vadra just because he is Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law and that a fair investigation should take place.The BJP, however, has maintained that there is no politics of revenge in this probe.