Dholpur Palace: Cong guns for Raje with new papers

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30

In a fresh salvo at Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the Congress today cited new documents to allege that she, in collaboration with former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, illegally converted government’s City Palace, Dholpur, into a private property.

The Congress also questioned how the National Highways Authority of India in 2010 paid Raje’s son Dushyant Singh, MP from Jhalawar-Baran, Rs 2 crore as compensation for the land acquired around the palace when the property didn’t even belong to him.

“How could an individual be compensated for acquisition of land which the state owns?,” Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today said, reiterating his party’s demand for Raje’s resignation. The Congress, in a new set of allegations against the Rajasthan CM, has said that she and her family illegally changed the ownership of Dholpur Palace as private and later let Modi-owned Niyant Heritage run it as a high-end luxury hotel.

The principal document the Congress presented today to back its arguments against Raje was the 1949 Instrument of Accession, signed by the then king of Dholpur Uday Bhan Singh with the Union of India. 

The document, retrieved from the National Archives of India, shows the status of ownership of properties of the Dholpur King. In these documents, City Palace, Dholpur, is described as: “Property of the state but shall remain in the possession and use of His Highness for his lifetime. Maintenance charges during this period will be borne by His Highness.”

Unveiling this document a day after the state BJP defended Raje (saying Dholpur Palace was transferred to Dushyant under an agreement he reached with his estranged father Hemant Singh who owned it), Ramesh said: “The Instrument of Accession is the fundamental clincher of the ownership of the property. All subsequent documents are null and void. It is clear that Dholpur Palace is a state property usurped by Raje and her family.”

To counter the BJP’s argument regarding transfer of the palace to Dushyant under an agreement with Hemant, the Congress cited a May 17, 2007, judgment of the Bharatpur Additional District Judge under which the agreement was formalised. The judgment acknowledges the agreement but adds that it is only in respect of the movable assets of Dholpur Palace. “This evidence is a smoking gun. As far as we know, Dholpur Palace is not movable yet,” Ramesh said.

“If the Prime Minister doesn’t act, his self-declared image of the messiah of morality will turn into a farce,” Ramesh said.

The Congress today also raked up a pending complaint to the CBI (April 10, 2013), which alleges a nexus between the NHAI and Dushyant after the latter was paid Rs 2 crore as compensation for the acquisition of 585 metre around Dholpur Palace in 2010.