No report, Dhingra gets six weeks more

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

The Justice SN Dhingra Commission of Inquiry, set up by the Manohar Lal Khattar government last year to investigate land licences to certain companies, including a firm owned by AICC chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law  Robert Vadra in Gurgaon, today got another extension of six weeks to complete  the task. 

A retired judge of the Delhi High Court, Justice Dhingra was to submit the report today.  “As I was on my way to submit the report, somebody approached me with a bunch of documents, saying these were related to benami transactions by those who had benefited from land licences.  These needed to be studied further,” Dhingra said.

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Already, the Haryana Government has twice extended the term of the commission — in December last for six months and on June 17 this year till  June 30. Stepping up its attack on Justice Dhingra, the Congress had yesterday accused him of “seeking  favours from Haryana Government”, maintaining that he was hence “incompetent and unsuitable to deliver a verdict”. Ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda had demanded that the panel be revoked as it had been set up “contrary to established rules and norms, without Cabinet approval and prompted by malice and political considerations”.

The BJP government had on May 14, 2015, set up the one-man commission to probe the grant of licence(s) to “some entities” in Sector 83, Gurgaon, for developing commercial colonies. It was to probe the transfer of land, allegations of private enrichment, ineligibility of beneficiaries and related matters.

In the run-up to the 2014 elections, the  BJP had made the land deals transacted under the previous Congress government a major poll issue, alleging that rules were bent to favour Vadra.