New Delhi, Oct. 5: Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan, who launched their political party this week, today alleged that realty major DLF had sweetened land deals worth Rs 300 crore for Robert Vadra in return for favours from the Congress governments in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The Congress responded swiftly, lining up senior ministers Ambika Soni, Salman Khurshid and Jayanthi Natarajan, who defended the right of Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law to do business like any other citizen and questioned the motive of the activist-turned-politician duo.

“Everyone has the right to do (their) own business. Robert Vadra is also a citizen of the country and he has the right to do any business. Making a charge without submitting any proof of wrongdoing is not acceptable,” information and broadcasting minister Soni said.

A DLF spokesperson said the business relationship with Vadra was “completely transparent” and conducted to the “highest standards of ethics”.

Kejriwal and Bhushan had alleged that between 2007 and 2010, DLF had helped companies wholly owned by Vadra and his mother Maureen with interest-free unsecured loans of Rs 65 crore, against a seed capital of merely Rs 50 lakh, to purchase 13 properties worth Rs 300 crore at throwaway prices. Most of these properties were bought from DLF itself in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, the duo alleged at a news conference this afternoon.

The three Congress governments favoured DLF in return, particularly Haryana which gave a 350-acre plot in Gurgaon acquired in public interest to the company to develop a golf course and DLF Magnolia apartment blocks, they said. Kejriwal and Bhushan furnished documents they claimed were already in the public domain and sourced from Registrar of Companies (RoC).

“Why should DLF provide an interest-free loan to Vadra? What was in it for DLF?” asked Kejriwal.

Bhushan said five of the 12 companies that Vadra and his mother Maureen wholly own didn’t “transact any business between 2007 to 2010 except receiving loans from DLF and laundering these loans to purchase properties from DLF itself”.

They demanded an independent probe. “This is why we demanded a strong Lokpal. A strong Lokpal could have done such a probe,” said Bhushan.

The allegations are not new, and had earlier appeared in the media in March 2011.

Soni said in Srinagar: “Kejriwal has been in public life for long. Why did not he present proof to the authorities whose duty is to investigate it?”