DLF-Vadra deal: Signs of huge favours from Haryana government

After he asked for a close inspection of all the land bought and sold within Haryana by Robert Vadra since 2005, senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka found himself transferred. Nevertheless, he delivered a thumping parting shot. On his last day as head of Haryana's land registration office, Mr Khemka nullified a 58-crore deal between real estate giant DLF and Mr Vadra, whose mother-in-law Sonia Gandhi is often described as the most powerful politician in the country. Mr Khemka says that the Haryana government's decisions about this plot of land seem heavily and inexplicably tilted in favour of Mr Vadra.. In February 2008, he bought 3.5 acres in Manesar, next to Gurgaon, for 7.5 crores. The very next day, the government ensured the land was mutated in his favour - this means that in government records, the land had been transferred to Mr Vadra, a process that normally takes between three and six months.. A month later, the Haryana government sanctioned to Mr Vadra a license that allowed him to use most of the land - 2.7 acres - to build a housing project. The license added so much commercial value to the land that three months after Mr Vadra had purchased it, DLF agreed to buy the plot from him for 58 crores. So in three months, Mr Vadra was making a 50-crore profit. In January 2011, the Haryana government renewed Mr Vadra's license for the commercial housing project, even though he has sold the land to DLF. But much before then, DLF had already paid him 50 crores- it had paid more than 80% of the price. Mr Khemka, in the letter commissioning an inquiry into Mr Vadra's deals, Mr Khemka says this was an aberration. He writes, "It is not known what made the Town and Country Planning Department to renew the LOI/licence on January 18, 2011 in favour of the vendor, when 86.2 per cent of the total sales consideration was paid to him by October 10, 2009, that is 15 months before the date of renewal of the LOI/licence." The bureaucrat states that if Mr Vadra "suppressed" information about his transactions with DLF for this land, action should be taken against him. It was only in July this year that the final instalment of eight crores was paid to Mr Vadra by DLF. By staggering the payments over four years Mr Vadra's company would have gained the benefit of not having to pay capital gains taxes even though it had received most of its payment years earlier.

DLF-Vadra deal: Signs of huge favours from Haryana government

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