New Delhi: The (CAG) comptroller and auditor general has put Robert Vadra in dock by pointing fingers at serious irregularities in his land ldeals in Haryana. According to CAG, Vadra made windfall gains worth Rs 43.66 crore with a lenient Congress government that allowed him to indulge in this illegal act, breaching law, and did not persist on recovering Rs 41.51 crore of the profit that he made by selling the land to DLF Universal.
The auditor in its first draft report on land deals in Haryana, has said that Vadra's Skylight Hospitality Private Limited had permission to develop a commercial colony when it had just Rs 1 lakh in its kitty. "The department (of town and country planning) ignored the aspect of the financial capacity of the colonizer," said the report.
The land was then quickly sold to DLF Universal for Rs 58 crore, with Skylight Hospitality making a total profit of Rs 43.66 crore.
As per the CAG draft report, the bilateral agreement between the state government and Skylight Hospitality allowed company of Vadra to retain Rs 2.15 crore, and then pass on the rest amount in the government's account. As Vadra's company had spent Rs 14.3 crore — Rs 7.5 crore to purchase the land and another Rs 6.84 crore on security and licence fees and conversion charges. The draft report says that the Hooda government should have realized Rs 41.5 crore from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law.
"As per bilateral agreement referred ibid, the developer was required to retain a profit of Rs 2.15 crore after developing the project but in the instant case the firm earned a profit of Rs 43.66 crore by selling this licence to DLF but had not deposited the profit i.e. Rs 41.51 crore in the government account," the draft report mentions.
On September 22nd, the draft report was sent to Haryana government when Hooda, who stayed firm saying that no favour was extended to Vadra, was still in office. With the change in regime, it is the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government which has to respond to the audit findings.
The BJP had highlighted Vadra's controversial land deals during the campaign for both Lok Sabha and Haryana elections. Even the Prime Minister Modi himself was leading the charge by raising the topic saying how the Hooda government reversed the decision of IAS officer Ashok Khemka not to normalize the land purchase by Priyanka Gandhi's spouse.
Khemka who had accused Hooda government of harassing him for objecting to Vadra's controversial land deals, also questioned the source of Rs 7.5 crore with which he purchased 3.5 acres of land, suggesting that it was not his own money.
The CAG findings tie in with declarations made by Khemka who was removed as director general (land holdings and land records) and inspector general (registration) after he has raise objections to the manner where Robert Vadra acquired the land which was later sold to DLF Universal at a huge profit.
The report on Vadra undertaken by CAG to scrutinize land deals under Hooda — an issue that was successfully used by BJP against Congress in the state polls, showcasing his suspected favours to Vadra, exemplary of the pattern where the state government allowed the conversion of land use to benefit chosen developers.
The audit that started off as a thematic audit in June 2013 focusing on a few cases has expanded to a full performance audit like the 2G spectrum allocation at present. Its also compare with the scam done on the Commonwealth Games as per the instructions of the headquarters.
