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Khattar virtually absolves Robert Vadra of illegality
The deal took place when the state was governed by a Congress administration under Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Around a decade after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged corruption and nepotism in a Gurugram land deal involving Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar — the former Haryana chief minister — seemingly absolved Vadra of illegality, saying the matter does not invite a jail term.
Khattar, currently the minister of housing and urban affairs, made the remarks during a press briefing in Jaipur on Sunday. “There is no such illegality in the matter (land transaction) that action has to be taken against someone to put them in jail… We do not get inquiries conducted with the aim of sending our opponents to jail,” he said.
Khattar also said that the findings (of inquiry) indicated that there was a variation in the sale and purchase price of the land which raised a suspicion that someone profited from it. Khattar indicated that there could be at best a non-criminal action like imposition of penalty or reverting the land
The land deal in question concerns a 2.701-acre parcel of land in Gurugram’s Shikohpur village (now Sector 83).
On December 15, 2008, Sky Light Hospitality — one of its directors was Vadra — was granted a licence to develop a commercial colony at the plot. At the time, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government was in power in the state. Four years later, on September 18, 2012, the company by way of a sale deed sold 3.53 acres of land — including the 2.701-acre parcel — to realty major DLF for ₹58 crore.
The deal had attracted controversy after senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then posted as the director general, consolidation of holdings, set aside the mutation of the sale of the 3.53-acre plot. At that time, the BJP, which was in the opposition, alleged corruption and nepotism in the deal, and after it came to power in the state, ordered a probe into the matter.
Khemka’s orders to set aside the mutation were though never given effect by the Gurugram revenue administration. Mutation is the transfer or change of title of a property in the land records of the revenue department. As per the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act the licence holder should have a clear title to the land.
In 2015, the Khattar government set up a commission of inquiry (CoI) to probe issues pertaining to the grant of the licence to Sky Light Hospitality. However, the Punjab and Haryana high court in January 2019 quashed the commission’s report, citing procedural flaws, though it gave the state the liberty to appoint a new commission — a step the BJP-led government is yet to take.
Separately, the Haryana Police in September 2018 filed a first information report (FIR) in Gurugram against Hooda, Vadra and others in connection with the land deal, but after the high court criticised the slow pace of progress in the case, the state government in 2023 reconstituted the special investigation team probing the 2018 FIR. The FIR is under investigation
In addition, the Haryana town and country planning department in March 2022 had cancelled the licence — an order that has been challenged by DLF. Hooda had told HT in 2023 that there was no illegality in the matter as it was purely a business transaction between private parties.
