HC dismisses plea seeking probe into allegations against Vadra

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition by a local activist seeking a probe into allegations of irregular land dealings against Robert Vadra levelled by IAC member Arvind Kejriwal. The petition, filed by Nutan Thakur on October 9 last year, was dismissed by the court`s Lucknow bench of justices Uma Nath Singh and Virendra Kumar Dixit. On behalf of Thakur, her lawyer Ashok Pandey had submitted that as the matter relates to higher-ups, only the Prime Minister`s Office would be able to conduct an inquiry.

The bench had on November 29 last year reserved its order on the maintainability of the petition. During the last hearing, Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasharan, appearing on behalf of the Centre, had submitted that the writ was based on general newspaper reports which cannot be treated as true. He had said if the petitioner cites news reports she should be able to prove that the claims are true. He had also said that the petition was liable to be dismissed as it was based on hearsay and the petitioner had no locus standi to file such petition. The PMO had termed the allegations regarding irregular land dealings between Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, and real estate major DLF as "false, based on heresay and vexatious". The PMO affidavit was in response to a notice issued by the bench on October 11 last year to the Centre listing objections to the maintainability of the petition filed by Thakur. PTI