Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were booked on Saturday, 1 September, by Haryana Police for alleged irregularities in a Gurgaon land deal.
An FIR against Vadra, Hooda and two companies – DLF and Onkareshwar Properties – has been registered at Kherki Daula police station in Gurgaon, Manesar Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajesh Kumar told PTI.
“We received a complaint today from one Surinder Sharma, resident of Nuh, in which he alleged irregularities in the land deals,” he said.
Countering the action, the Congress on Sunday said PM Modi had launched a "vicious and malicious witch-hunt" by filing the cases against Hooda and Vadra.
On the same day, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said, “Our fight against corruption is on. Those found guilty will be punished, probe is underway by different agencies in different cases. This FIR filed by a brave citizen will also be probed.”
Hooda has also spoken about the FIR lodged against him. “It’s a politically motivated FIR through a private complaint. People now know this government's intentions. Elections are near and they have found nothing against us. It is just their frustration,” he told ANI.
In the FIR lodged on Saturday, the complainant alleged that Vadra's Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd purchased 3.5 acres of land in Gurgaon's Sector 83 from Onkareshwar Properties at a price of Rs 7.50 crore in 2008 – when Hooda was chief minister and also held the portfolio of Town and County Planning Department.
Later, Skylight Hospitality sold this land to realty major DLF for Rs 58 crore, after procuring a commercial licence for the development of the colony with Hooda’s influence, the complainant alleged.
He also alleged that 350 acres of land was allotted to DLF at Wazirabad in Gurgaon in violation of rules which made the realty major gain Rs 5,000 crore.
Vadra and Hooda have now been booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC, and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
‘Cases Diverting Attention from Rafale Deal’: Congress
The Congress on Sunday said the cases against Vadra and Hooda were to divert attention from the corruption saga of Rafale deal, demonetisation, Rs 12 lakh crore loot through hike in fuel prices, failure to create two crore jobs every year, rapidly falling rupee and failing economy, and complete failure of the BJP government.
A new set of manufactured lies is being served through false and fake FIRs against political opponents... As elections to the four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram along with the general elections draw near, the fake news factory and dirty tricks department of the Modi government-BJP act maliciously in pursuit of their vicious propaganda.Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, as quoted by IANS
Earlier in February, Hooda and 33 others were chargesheeted by the CBI in a case of alleged corruption in Manesar land deals worth over Rs 1,500 crore.
That chargesheet is related to land transactions in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages of Gurgaon.
The Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government had set up a one-man commission in May 2015 to probe the grant of licences for developing commercial colonies by the Department of Town and Country Planning in Gurgaon's Sector 83.
The Justice SN Dhingra Commission, formed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, had examined the licences given by the then Hooda government for the development of housing societies and commercial complexes in four Guragon villages of Sihi, Shikohpur, Kherki Daula and Sikanderpur Bada.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had made the land deals a major poll issue in 2014, alleging that Vadra benefited through questionable land use permissions granted by the earlier Congress government in the state led by Hooda.
(With inputs from IANS, PTI and ANI.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)