hares of realty giant DLF slumped nearly eight percent today on concerns that Robert Vadra’s controversial land deal with the real estate firm is expected to come under the scanner of the Manohar Lal Khattar government that was sworn in on Sunday.
Robert Vadra’s firm, Skylight Hospitality, had bought the land in Shikhopur, a village in Gurgaon, in February 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore. A month later, he was given a licence by Haryana’s town and country planning department to develop a housing colony on the site. But within two months of the licence being granted, Vadra had sold the land to DLF for Rs 58 crore. Following this IAS officer Ashok Khemka, Haryana’s former director-general, consolidation, had cancelled the mutation citing “irregularities”. But just days before Haryana went to polls, the Hooda government held the Vadra-DLF deal as valid.
During the campaigns of the Haryana assembly elections, BJP had alleged that Congress party-led Haryana government legitimised Vadra- DLF land deal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for BJP in Haryana had also kept the alleged land scams in the state at the centre of his attack.
The fall in DLF shares, to as low as Rs 109.80 in morning trade at the BSE, follows a major plunge of 28 percent in a single day earlier this month after a Sebi order barred the company and six others from accessing the capital markets for three years. The Sebi order has been challenged by DLF before the Securities Appellate Tribunal which would next hear the case on October 30.
While the stock had recovered some lost ground last week after being hit by Sebi order, it fell further this morning after reports suggested that it may face probe in Haryana.
Hours after taking oath, two new ministers in Haryana on Sunday said the BJP government would order a thorough probe into the alleged land scams and not spare anyone, even Robert Vadra or former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. DLF has a significant presence in Haryana and is credited with creation of India's largest township set up by a private player in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the national capital.
Another senior minister, Anil Vij, said: "Land is the biggest scam that has taken place in Haryana, over 70,000 acres land was acquired (by the government) from innocent farmers and allotted to people after making huge profits."
"We will get every inch of this land scam probed. Anyone found guilty in that, whether any official, Robert Vadra or Bhupinder Singh Hooda, we will not spare anyone," Vij said.
He said the Congress and other parties had pushed Haryana deep into corruption in the past 48 years.
"Our priority is to take the state out of this mess. There is a new dawn in Haryana. People have a lot of expectations from this government," he added.
The new government is likely to cancel the three-acre deal in Shikhopur village.
The new ministers' remarks, however, drew sharp reactions from the Congress, which said that such statements show the arrogance of Haryana government.
(firstpost)