New twist in Robert Vadra-DLF land deal controversy

The Haryana government has revealed that two crucial pages from the file that pertains to the controversial Robert Vadra-DLF Gurgaon land deal, are missing. The missing pages also contained notings.

Chandigarh: The Haryana government has revealed that two crucial pages from the file that pertains to the controversial Robert Vadra-DLF Gurgaon land deal, are missing. The missing pages also contained notings.

The issue came to light after IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who was the director general (Consolidation) when the land deal was cancelled, filed an RTI application seeking a copy of that file.

The file dealt with a three-member panel that was set up by the previous Haryana government of chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to examine whether Khemka had the rights to cancel the mutation of the deal.

The committee had later cleared the deal and recommended charges against the IAS officer for misconduct.

Responding to Khemka's RTI application, State Public Information Officer DR Wadhwa said in an affidavit: “The undersigned made many efforts to trace out page no. 1 and 2 of the noting of the official file, but could not trace the pages. Hence, the pages could not be provided to the appellant.”

Following the revelation, Khemka has written to the state Chief Secretary asking him to file an FIR in the matter.

"It is a serious matter and it should be probed...How can the notings suddenly be untraceable," Khemka told PTI today.

"The file noting is a very important piece of record which would establish that the three members were specifically appointed to an illegally constituted Committee by the then political executive, where the only remedy to an aggrieved party was to file a writ petition in High Court, with the pre-determined objective to accord clean chit to black-marketing of colony license by M/s Skylight Hospitality, a company belonging to Robert Vadra, and to discredit my action of cancelling the land mutation from M/s Skylight Hospitality to M/s DLF," Khemka charged in a letter yesterday to the Haryana Chief Secretary.

Admitting that the pages were missing, Chief Secretary P K Gupta said an internal inquiry has been instituted in the matter and efforts are on to reconstruct the file.

"We are trying to reconstruct the file because I think it was six-seven months back somebody asked for information under RTI, somebody other than Khemka. He had asked for information and that information was given to him...We are approaching the Information Commissioner's office to see if a copy of that is available with that office," Gupta said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra has been accused of securing an interest-free loan of Rs 65 crores and land at throwaway prices in return for political favours.

(With PTI inputs)