FIR Filed Against Rahul Gandhi’s Brother-In-Law Robert Vadra In Gurugram Land Scam Case 

In a major embarrassment for the Congress, the Gurugram police on Saturday booked former ex-Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and party president Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra for their alleged involvement in a fraudulent land deal case, The Tribune has reported.

A small-time businessman, who is married to Priyanka Gandhi, Vadra’s dubious land deals are under investigation by authorities.

In addition to Vadra and Hooda, real estate behemoth DLF and property developer Onkareshwar Properties were also booked by the Gurugram police. The cases were filed under provisions of Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Gurugram police acted against Vadra and Hooda based on a private complaint lodged by Surinder Sharma, a resident of Nuh, in which he alleged irregularities in the land deals in Shikohpur, Sector 83 of Gurugram.

According to the complaint, Vadra owned firm Skylight Hospitality was registered in 2007 with a mere capital of Rs 1 lakh. In 2008, it purchased 3.5 acres of land in Sector 83 for Rs 7.5 crore from Onkareshwar Properties. The Rs 7.5 crore cheque given to the seller was never encashed. Soon after getting a licence to develop a commercial colony in 2008, the Skylight Hospitality sold off the land to DLF, a real estate firm with allegedly deep links to the Congress, for Rs 58 crores.

The complaint also alleged that Hooda, who held the portfolio of Town and Country Planning at that time, granted commercial colony licence to Skylight Hospitality in blatant violation of rules and regulations. No due diligence as regards to the financial and technical capacity of the company, which was one of the criteria for the grant of the colony licence, was performed by Hooda’s government. The firm purchased 3.53 acres of land in Shikohpur in February 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore and the mutation was done in its favour the next day. Within a month (in March 2008), the town planning department issued the company the licence required to develop a colony, the officer had said.

The complaint also alleged that DLF was favoured in the allotment of around 350 acres of land for a golf course in Wazirabad of Gurugram as a quid pro quo between Vadra owned Skylight Hospitality and DLF.

In 2012, IAS officer Ashok Khemka had cancelled the mutation of this particular land for allegedly violating rules and regulations.

Hooda has already been chargesheeted by Central Bureau of Investigation in the Manesar land scam case.

In March this year, the Supreme Court had restored the acquisition of 688 acres of land in Gurugram during Hooda’s tenure as Haryana chief minister and said that the decision to withdraw the order for acquisition was a fraud.