Page 38 - 30SEPT18E

OPINION
SPOTLIGHT
VIPIN PUBBY
Former resident editor
of The Indian Express,
Vipin Pubby is a senior B deals during his regime,
journalist based in
Chandigarh. He can
be contacted at
vipinpubby@gmail.
com. The views
expressed are personal
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38-39 Opinion Vipin Pubby.indd 2 9/17/2018
Soup of trouble for • Deal seal Robert Vadra has been
denying any wrong doing and has
Bhupinder Singh Hooda been challenging the government to
investigate the allegations
Haryana ex-CM Hooda’s well known generosity in doling out favours Township, over 400 acres
in land deals is coming back to haunt him and the Congress as the was sold in distress sale. The
issue of notification and its
Parliament and state Assembly elections are just a few months away
withdrawal took just 22 days
and that’s when an estimated
hupinder Singh Hooda, restored and Khemka sent out of the 400 acres was sold by farmers
the former chief minister department concerned in yet another and suffering loss of crores
of Haryana, is facing half a transfer. Even the Comptroller and Audi- of rupees. Had they not sold
dozen major investigations, tor General Haryana had questioned their land on distress and had
involving hundreds of land irregularities in the case but the Khattar subsequently obtained CLUs,
Government preferred to soft paddle the they would have become
but the latest to hit him and the party issue. millionaires.
relates to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s While these facts and figures had been The CBI has now filed a
brother-in-law Robert Vadra, could be in the public domain for nearly a decade, chargesheet against Hooda
the ‘brahamshastra’ that the BJP had held the Manohar Lal Khattar BJP government and 33 others including senior
back for the ensuing elections. preferred to sleep over it since it came to bureaucrats. Besides 22 real
The facts of the case are that Vadra’s office four years ago. The BJP had gone to estate companies have also
company, Skylight Hospitality, had pur- town to expose nepotism and corruption he calculated that figure but he assert- The latest row to hit been made a party. They have been
chased about 3.5 acres of land in village by the Hooda administration during the ed that Vadra and Hooda also helped charged under sections 420, 465, 467,
Shikohpur near Manesar from Onka- campaign for the 2014 elections and had DLF in other ways such as “wrongful” Hooda and his party 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal
reshwar Properties for about 7.5 crore in promised to institute an inquiry to nail allotment of 350 acres of land near Code and under the Prevention of Cor-
2008, a few months after the formation the guilty. Wazirabad. relates to Rahul’s ruption Act,1988.
of Hooda government. Significantly the Vadra has been of course denying But even though the BJP had made brother-in-law In another case, the CBI has regis-
cheque of 7.5 crore given by Skylight any wrong doing and saying that it was a big deal about the CLU granted to tered an FIR against Hooda and others
Hospitality was never encashed by a clean business deal. He had been chal- Robert Vadra, and had threatened to Robert Vadra for allotting 14 prized industrial plots
Onkareshwar Properties and there was lenging the government to investigate cancel it, the Khattar Government had could be the in Panchkula to his favourites. The
obviously an understanding between the the allegations but the government had been accepting the licence fee from the allotments were made in an arbitrary
two parties. been shying away from doing so. DLF for the land under question. It has ‘brahamshastra’ manner.
It was agriculture land and there was Now, suddenly, with a few months left over the last two years accepted 91.84 that the BJP had Yet another case again involves
nothing else one could do with the land. for elections, the government has found a lakh to renew the commercial license Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and
There lies the key to the issue or ‘scam’. complainant in the case. It took little time of the controversial land. held back for the several senior leaders of the Congress.
Vadra, evidently using his clout and con- in lodging an FIR against Vadra, Sonia The DLF deposited the fee in No- ensuing elections It pertains to the grant of prime land to
nections with Hooda, was able to secure a Gandhi, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the vember 2016. This was in addition to National Herald, founded by Jawaharlal
Change of Land Use (CLU) permission for DLF and Onkareshwar properties under 12.74 crore paid up to July 2014. Nehru, in the heart of Panchkula. Docu-
the land from agricultural land to land sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468 and 471 Significantly, Skylight Hospitality earlier under Section 4 of the Land ments suggest that the allotment was
for commercial and residential purposes. (forgery) of the IPC and Section 13 of the ceased to be a private company in 2015 Acquisition Act. Under the notification cancelled due to non-payment for a
The grant of permission skyrocketed the Prevention of Corruption Act. and was incorporated as Limited Li- the government expresses its intent of long period but Hooda violated all rules
price of the land. The complaint was lodged by a lit- ability Partnership in May 2016. compulsorily acquiring land for public to restore the land at a highly conces-
The Company sold the same land, a tle known owner of a medical shop in While this is the latest land deal case use. Invariably such a notification cases sional rate.
few months later, to the real estate giant Gurugram. The complainant, Surender taken up by the Khattar Government panic as the governments had been With all these cases being investi-
DLF at a whopping 58 crore. Skylight Sharma, is a resident of village Rathivas involving Hooda, the former chief min- paying a measly amount as compen- gated by various agencies like the Vigi-
Hospitality thus made over 50 crore in Nuh district of Haryana and owns ister is facing several more cases which sation and that too after a prolonged lance Bureau, the CBI, the Enforcement
within the space of a few months. about 10 acres of land. are likely to keep him tied down during period. It was at that stage that land Directorate and the Income Tax, Hooda
The alleged irregularities in the deal Sharma has alleged in his com- the elections next year. sharks purchase land at throwaway is likely to remain tied down to defend
were also brought out by the well-known plaint that the “accused conspired with One of these cases pertains to hun- price. But once the notification was himself and his government. The latest
IAS officer Ashok Khemka who had even influential builders, ministers and top dreds of farmers getting deprived of withdrawn, the value of the land went one involving Robert Vadra may, how-
cancelled the mutation of the land. That government officers (who) misused their their land in Gurugram in 2005 simply up manyfolds. ever, hit his party the hardest.
was done when Hooda was the chief positions and committed a scam worth because Hooda as the chief minister Of the 912 acres of land notified
minister. However the mutation was 5,000 crore”. Little is known as to how had withdrawn a notification issue for acquisition for Manesar Industrial LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM
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8:06:34 PM 38-39 Opinion Vipin Pubby.indd 3 9/17/2018 8:06:46 PM