Missing DLF-Robert Vadra deal info: BJP flogging ‘non-issue’, says Congress

Congress today termed a “non -issue” the matter of pages missing from government records pertaining to the controversial DLF-Robert Vadra deal and charged that “vested interests” in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership were flogging it for “malicious political motives”.

“The onus of safe custody of the file is that of the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana,” Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said, adding, “Certain vested interests, including those in BJP leadership, have been flogging this issue for malicious political motives.”

The party was reacting to reports that file notings on the setting up of a ‘High-Powered Enquiry Committee’ by the previous Congress government in Haryana to examine the orders passed by IAS officer Ashok Khemka in connection with the deal have gone missing.

In a release here, Surjewala said that political parties and persons raising the issue must point out what were its merits.

“Such non-issues should not be used for political propaganda or witch-hunt,” said Surjewala, who was a minister in the previous Congress government in Haryana.

“It is in the public domain that a committee headed by three senior-most IAS officers was appointed to examine the issues raised by Khemka. They submitted a comprehensive report rejecting the contentions. Two of these officers continue to serve in the Government of India as also in the Government of Haryana.

“No one has stated or even remotely alleged that such an enquiry was not constituted by the previous Congress government. It is a matter of record that the order appointing the Enquiry Committee, report of the Enquiry Committee and all replies filed by Khemka are clearly available on the file,” he added.

The Congress spokesman said that if any notings regarding the appointment of the committee have gone missing, the BJP government in the state is free to conduct an appropriate inquiry.

BJP leader and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh has said that pages missing from government records pertaining to the controversial DLF-Robert Vadra deal was a “serious” matter even though he clarified that he had not seen the media reports in this regard.

An RTI query filed by Khemka has found that two pages of a file pertaining to the land deal between DLF and Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, are missing from government records following which he has sought the registration of an FIR in the matter. Khemka had over two years back cancelled the mutation of the said deal.

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