‘Vadra presented fake papers’

IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s explosive claims

Khemka points that if the market premium for a colony licence is assumed to be as low as Rs 1 crore per acre, the land licensing scam in the past eight years in Haryana is worth around Rs 20,000 crore. "At the premium of Rs 15.78 crore per acre that Vadra earned, this figure would jump to Rs 3.5 lakh crore," he claims and demands a white paper on issue of colony licences

Chandigarh (Agencies): Robert Vadra's land deals in a village in Haryana have returned to haunt the Congress party and its chief with whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka alleging that Vadra "falsified documents" for 3.53 acres of land in Gurgaon and "pocketed" large premium on a commercial colony licence.

In his "voluminous reply" submitted to Haryana government's three-member enquiry committee set up in October last to look into Vadra-DLF deal, Khemka is understood to have alleged that Vadra, who is Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, executed a series of "sham transactions" for 3.53 acres of land in Shikohpur village of Gurgaon.

Vadra's firm Sky Light Hospitality gets housing licence a parcel of land near Manesar in March 2008. Land mutation was done in just a day as against normal duration of 3-6 months. In June 2008, DLF bought his land for Rs 58 crore, many times the price. DLF paid money over 4 years, but the payment was shown as advances so that Vadra could book no profit and avoid Capital Gains Tax. Haryana government renewed licence in the name of Vadra's company in January 2011 though the land had already been sold to DLF . The land was finally registered in DLF's name against rules in October 2012.

Khemka as the designated authority (Director General, Land Holdings and Land Records and Inspector General of Registration) cancelled the deal between Vadra and DLF in October 2012. Later, a Haryana government-instituted probe stated that his order was improper and he was shunted out and issued a notice.

By filing false balance sheet in March 2006, Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited committed offences under sections 217(5) and 628 of The Companies Act, 1956, Khemka’s report reportedly alleged. “The DTCP aided Vadra in making these sham transactions," he alleged.

Khemka submitted his reply on May 21 to a government notice following his controversial cancellation of the land mutation deal between Vadra and DLF claims that the sale of the land by Sky Light from one Onkareshwar Properties and later the grant of commercial licence to him in March 2008 were "sham transactions."

Khemka, who had cancelled a land mutuation deal between Vadra and DLF last October, claims that "there was no promise to pay in the future in the registered deed." "If there was no payment as alleged in the registered deed, can it be said that the registered deed conferred ownership title over the said land upon Skylight Hospitality by virtue of the sham sale," he questions. “No price was paid as claimed in the registered deed. The sale registered in the said deed cannot, therefore, be called a "sale" in true sense of the term, legal or moral and it cannot be said that Skylight Hospitality became owner of the land in question by virtue of sale registered in the deed,” Khemka is understood to have said in his report running into some 100 pages.
While Khemka's reply has gone public, the officer, on being approached by PTI here said, "I will not speak to the media on this issue."
Haryana chief secretary P K Chaudhary said, "We are examining the reply (by Khemka)". The Haryana government's committee had earlier this year concluded that the orders passed by Khemka initiating an enquiry into Vadra's land deals were "without jurisdiction, inappropriate and not covered under any provisions of any statute or rules."

Besides, the committee also held that the order by Khemka cancelling the land mutation was improper. Demanding a white paper on the transfer of all such licenses permitted in the past to expose the "loot of public wealth," Khemka writes that the DTCP had issued various types of colony licences for a total of 21,3666 acres in the last eight years of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government's tenure between 2005 to 2012.

He points that if the market premium for a colony licence is assumed to be as low as Rs 1 crore per acre, the land licensing scam in the past eight years is worth around Rs 20,000 crore. "At the premium of Rs 15.78 crore per acre that Vadra earned, this figure would jump to Rs 3.5 lakh crore," he claims. He alleged in the letter the DTCP permitted Skylight to transfer the licence to DLF in April 2012 and the licensed land was finally sold to DLF on September 18, 2012.

"By allowing the transfer of licence issued in the name of Skylight to DLF, the DTCP created a black market for trading in licences where cronies are issued licences which are later sold or transferred with permission of the authority for a fat consideration to the real developers," he writes.

On August 5, 2008, Skylight Hospitality entered into an unregistered collaboration agreement with DLF Universal. Khemka observes that this led to loss of crores of revenue to the state exchequer due to a collaboration agreement of this kind has to be registered.

The opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has demanded a probe into the reply by Khemka by a sitting judge of the high court. INLD leader Abhay Chautala, who is also MLA from Ellenabad, said his party had thrice raised this issue in the Vidhan Sabha, but the Speaker always tried to suppress it. "All such transactions are done by the Hooda government to appease Sonia," he alleged.