Khemka not aware of Vadra clean chit
Chandigarh, Oct 26 (IBNS)
Haryana Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ashok Khemka on Friday said he was not aware of any clean chit given to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra in the alleged land deals linking him and realty bellwether DLF.
"I have not got any such order regarding the constitution of a committee, I have not been served with any notice to explain any aspect of the matter. The legal position is that the mutation stands cancelled," Khemka was quoted as saying by CNN IBN.
Khemka made the comments at a time when the Haryana government officers have cleared Vadra in the allegations of undervalued land deals connecting him and the state administration and DLF.
According to reports, a panel of four deputy commissioners in Haryana have said after probes that there were no illegalities in the land deals.
The probe by the commissioners followed an order by Khemka who was transferred from his post following his direction.
Khemka, who was in the Land Registration Department, was shunted out after he asked for the papers in the deal and ordered a probe into it.
The land in question for which Khemka had ordered probe is an over 3.5-acre plot that Vadra sold to DLF for Rs 58 crore in 2009, according to some reports.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was under attack too for allegedly favouring Vadra and DLF.
Soon after the news of clean chit to Vadra circulated, India Against Corruption (IAC) leader Arvind Kejriwal tweeted slamming the state government and Congress.
"Newspapers say - Haryana officers give clean chit to Vadra. That was expected. Country wud [would] be surprised if it were otherwise," he said.
"In Haryana, all good officers shunted out. Those in key positions crawl when asked to bend," he posted.
Kejriwal said the probes are just an eyewash and Congress and BJP are "bhai-bhai" (in league like brothers).
"Now cong will protect Gadkari and BJP will protect Vadra. Cong BJP bhai bhai," he tweeted.
Arvind Kejriwal in a press conference to "expose" Vadra earlier had said documents proved that the Haryana government favoured the DLF company and acquired land from farmers by trick to hand over to DLF where Vadra held majority shares.
Demanding a white paper on the deals with DLF from the Haryana government, Kejriwal said the farmers were cheated and their land acquired for development of roads and housing for common people were handed over to DLF from where Vadra derived benefits. He said land use was changed after acquiring the plots.
He said even the Punjab and Haryana High Court said there is a mala fide nexus between the two.
He said the Haryana government instead of building hospital in the land meant for it, permitted real estate firm DLF to build there something else.
He said the court has said Haryana government is showering favours on DLF.
He said on March 9, 2007 the state government gave permission to DLF to build a SEZ (Special Economic Zone), but one month before that only DLF built a company for the purpose in which Robert Vadra was a majority shareholder.
Vadra after one year sold back the shares to DLF, Kejriwal said.
He said 350 acres of land in Gurgaon worth Rs 1700 crore was given to DLF.
He said financial bids of other companies for projects were not even opened after their technical bids were rejected on the pretext of not having experience in building golf course before.
On Oct 5, creating a political firestorm, Kejriwal and his team first targetted the Congress first family laying before people the undervalued property deals of Vadra with DLF, alleging the latter made hundreds of crores in return of government favours to the firm.
Soon after the charges were slapped, the entire Congress machinery was out defending the Gandhis with Sonia Gandhi herself in a one-liner statement denying Vadra misused his position. Congress called Vadra a soft target of publicity hungry Kejriwal.