More than four years after senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was booked for cheating, the Haryana government told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that no rules were violated in the transfer of land by Skylight Hospitality to the DLF Universal Limited in Gurugram, reported The Indian Express.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra is the director of Skylight Hospitality and the alleged deal took place when the Congress was in power in the state with Hooda as the chief minister.
On September 1, 2018, a case was registered against Vadra, Hooda, Onkareshwar Properties Ltd and Sky Light Hospitality for cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and corruption at the Kherki Daula police station in Gurugram.
They were booked under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act (criminal misconduct by a public servant).
The First Information Report was registered on a complaint lodged by Surender Sharma, a resident of Rathivas village in Haryana’s Nuh district. Sharma had alleged that Vadra “conspired with influential builders, ministers and top government officers, misused their positions and committed a scam worth Rs 5,000 crore,” reported The Indian Express.
Launched in 2007 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh, Vadra’s company Skylight Hospitality had managed to purchase within a year a 3.5-acre land from Onkareshwar Properties for a sale deed value of Rs 7.5 crore, the complainant had alleged.
Vadra later obtained permission from the Haryana town and country planning department to develop a commercial colony on the land and then sold the developer’s licence and land to DLF for Rs 58 crore, the FIR said.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court, which is hearing the case, was notified by the state government in a status report that Special Investigation Team has found no rules were violated in the land deal of 3.53 acres that Sky Light sold to DLF on September 18, 2012, reported The Tribune.
So far, the investigation team only confirmed payments from Sky Light Hospitality to Onkareshwar Properties and a notice has been served to the Union Bank for the status of cheques mentioned in sale deeds and relevant account statement of accounts related to the deal, the newspaper reported.
Following the development, Hooda said that the case against him was politically motivated. “The case was registered with political motives,” Hooda told The Indian Express. “I would not like to say anything further at this stage. I have full faith in judiciary.”
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