New Delhi: As Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress did not follow the law in assigning land to firms, a former judge has found, according to sources.
The investigation included scrutinising land assigned to real estate major DLF and a company owned by Robert Vadra, who is the son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Justice SN Dhingra, who retired from the Delhi High Court, was assigned last year to investigate 250 licenses or allocations of plots by Mr Hooda, who lost the state election in 2014 to the BJP.
He handed his 182-page report to Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar today and has refused to disclose its contents, saying it is now up to the state government to act on it.
But he confirmed he has found irregularities in the grant of land licences and said he has "named each and every person who was responsible, whether a government official or private person."
Sources said Justice Dhingra's report says Mr Hooda acted "contrary to the law" and distributed licences in "an ad hoc manner."
He has reportedly recommended action against several government officials and "private persons" who allegedly connived with them. The report supposedly lists examples of the alleged collusion.
Mr Vadra, his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mrs Gandhi have said that he did not indulge in any wrongdoing or accrue windfall profit because his family's party was in power.
Sources close to Mr Vadra confirmed that he was not asked to appear in person to explain his deal to Justice Dhingra; instead, his firm, Skylight Hospitality, provided answers in response to a questionnaire that it received. They said Mr Vadra would "not run away from anything and will face the challenge".
In the campaign before the last national election, which the Congress lost abysmally, the Gandhis said Mr Vadra was being subjected to a "witch hunt".
Mr Hooda ignored two orders to meet with Justice Dhingra to furnish details of his decision.
The controversy around Mr Vadra is based on a 3.5-acre plot in Gurgaon that he bought in 2008 for 7.5 crores and sold just months later for 58 crores to India's largest real estate developer, DLF, which too has denied wrongdoing. Justice Dhingra summoned neither Mr Vadra nor the "whistleblower" in his case, senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka, who tried to cancel the land deal that's been described as corrupt.
The investigation included scrutinising land assigned to real estate major DLF and a company owned by Robert Vadra, who is the son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Justice SN Dhingra, who retired from the Delhi High Court, was assigned last year to investigate 250 licenses or allocations of plots by Mr Hooda, who lost the state election in 2014 to the BJP.
He handed his 182-page report to Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar today and has refused to disclose its contents, saying it is now up to the state government to act on it.
But he confirmed he has found irregularities in the grant of land licences and said he has "named each and every person who was responsible, whether a government official or private person."
Sources said Justice Dhingra's report says Mr Hooda acted "contrary to the law" and distributed licences in "an ad hoc manner."
He has reportedly recommended action against several government officials and "private persons" who allegedly connived with them. The report supposedly lists examples of the alleged collusion.
Mr Vadra, his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mrs Gandhi have said that he did not indulge in any wrongdoing or accrue windfall profit because his family's party was in power.
Sources close to Mr Vadra confirmed that he was not asked to appear in person to explain his deal to Justice Dhingra; instead, his firm, Skylight Hospitality, provided answers in response to a questionnaire that it received. They said Mr Vadra would "not run away from anything and will face the challenge".
In the campaign before the last national election, which the Congress lost abysmally, the Gandhis said Mr Vadra was being subjected to a "witch hunt".
Mr Hooda ignored two orders to meet with Justice Dhingra to furnish details of his decision.
The controversy around Mr Vadra is based on a 3.5-acre plot in Gurgaon that he bought in 2008 for 7.5 crores and sold just months later for 58 crores to India's largest real estate developer, DLF, which too has denied wrongdoing. Justice Dhingra summoned neither Mr Vadra nor the "whistleblower" in his case, senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka, who tried to cancel the land deal that's been described as corrupt.
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