Haryana govt to probe Vadra deals

Chandigarh: Hours after taking oath as Haryana Cabinet Ministers, Anil Vij and Capt. Abhimanyu, on Sunday said that the BJP government would order a thorough probe into the alleged land scams of the previous Congress government.

Earlier, Manohar Lal Khattar was sworn in as the Chief Minister. Nine Ministers were also sworn in. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior party leaders like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi attended the ceremony.

Abhimanyu said all the alleged land scams of the previous Hooda government would be probed, while Vij said anyone found guilty would be dealt as per law. "We will order a thorough probe into all land scams of the last ten years. Even if a single inch of land is found to have been acquired in violation of rules, those found guilty will be given exemplary punishment so that no one dares to indulge in such scams in future in Haryana," Abhimanyu, the Narnaund MLA who was in race for the Chief Minister’s post, told reporters here.

Vij, the five-time MLA from Ambala Cantt, hit out at the previous Congress regime for allegedly indulging in scams and corruption. "Nearly 70,000 acres of land was acquired from farmers and sold at high profits. We will order probe and anyone found guilty, be it any official, Robert Vadra or (former Chief Minister) Bhupinder Singh Hooda or anyone else, will not be spared," Vij told reporters here.

As per the sources, the new government is likely to cancel the three-acre deal in Shikhopur village that brought allegations of corruption to the doorstep of 10 Janpath and shook the foundations of UPA-2 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Notably, BJP and other parties had in the run-up to the assembly polls attacked the previous Hooda government over the Robert Vadra land deal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for the BJP in Haryana had also kept the alleged land scams in the state at the centre of his attack.