Chandigarh/New Delhi, Aug. 31: A judicial panel set up by the BJP-led Haryana government to probe land deals involving several companies, including one owned by Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, today said it had found "irregularities" but refused to go into details after submitting its report.
Justice S.N. Dhingra, who headed the one-man commission, said the "onus" was "on the state" whether to make the report public or what action to take.
The Congress dismissed the report as part of the Narendra Modi government's political witch-hunt, alleging that the retired Delhi High Court judge was a "puppet in the hands of the BJP".
Party communications chief Randeep Surjewala said portions of the report that had "apparently been leaked" to the media reflected the "mal-intent". "The agenda is to vilify an individual who is related to the Congress president," Surjewala said in Delhi.
The Haryana government is yet to make public the report, which has the potential to stoke the political flames ahead of crucial Assembly elections next year in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier in the day, in Chandigarh, Justice Dhingra did not name either Vadra or B.S. Hooda, Haryana's former Congress chief minister who was in power when the purportedly controversial land licences were granted or plots allocated.
"I have stated the irregularities, the manner in which they were committed and those who benefited. Rest is for the state to decide," Justice Dhingra said after handing over the report to chief minister M.L. Khattar.
Despite repeated questions, he refused to comment further on the report's contents. "If there were no irregularities I would have written one sentence (that) there were no irregularities.... There would have been nothing to write for me over 182 pages," he said.
At the crux of the controversy is a 3.5-acre plot in Gurgaon that Vadra's company, Skylight Hospitality, had bought in 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore. Subsequently, Vadra is alleged to have got the plot's land use changed for developing it as a residential colony. He then sold it to a real estate firm for Rs 58 crore.
In 2012, IAS officer Ashok Khemka had cancelled the deal and ordered the district commissioners of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat to inspect all documents related to any land deals by Vadra or his companies.
