Track2Realty-Agencies: Robert Vadra was on Friday, Oct 26, given a clean chit by the Haryana government in the controversial land deals involving him in the state after an official probe concluded that there was no “undervaluation” or loss of revenue to the government.
“The Deputy Commissioners of four districts of Haryana namely Gurgaon, Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat have inspected all documents registered in their respective districts from January 1, 2005 till date by or on behalf of Robert Vadra or his companies in the capacity of either vendor or vendee and have certified that no deed has been found registered as undervalued,” an official release said.
The release detailed the lands registered by the son-in-law of Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and his companies and said it was found that the “stamp duty paid, has also been found to be much higher than the collector’s rate duly notified by the District Collector. Therefore, no loss of revenue to the state has been caused by these sale deeds”.
The probe was ordered by whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka amid a row over Vadra’s deals with realty major DLF.
Khemka as Director General Consolidation of Holdings and Land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration, a day after his transfer on October 12 and three days before he actually relinquished charge, had asked DCs of Gurgaon, Palwal, Faridabad and Mewat falling in NCR to “inspect all documents registered since 2005 on behalf of Vadra or his companies in the capacity of vendor (seller) and vendee (buyer)”.
Reacting to the development, activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal said this was expected. He demanded that both Vadra and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari declare all their business interests.
“Haryana officers have given clean chit to Vadra. That was expected. The country would be surprised if it were otherwise. In Haryana, all good officers are shunted out. Those in key positions crawl when asked to bend,” he said.
Kerjiwal reiterated that both the Congress and the BJP are hand-in-glove and will protect each other. “Now cong will protect Gadkari and BJP will protect Vadra. Cong BJP bhai bhai,” he tweeted.
Describing the clean-chit as a “self-certification”, the BJP said there was no reason to believe in the findings of the probe. “The clean-chit given by the Haryana government to Robert Vadra in the land deals is a self-certification. What else can they do? They are the accused, the investigators and the ones giving the clean-chit,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi.
Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi defended the report and asserted that it was not an “eyewash”. The officials are all “responsible officers”, he said.
