My land deals not linked to Vadra funds, says Priyanka Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday questioned Economic Times for making “queries” over the alleged land deals being probed by the Dhingra Commission.

An official statement released by her office stated that “any allegations made by the Economic Times in this purported article and/or any headline which besmirches the reputation of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will appear to be based upon certain questionable documents and represent a deliberate, politically-motivated and malicious campaign to besmirch and destroy her reputation. They will be entirely false, utterly baseless and defamatory.”

The statement stated that “certain queries were addressed by a journalist of the Economic Times in relation to my husband in which it was alleged that I had acquired properties with illegally acquired funds.”

“It was incomprehensible to me that the correspondent would not even seek a clarification from me or my office directly, therefore, I addressed a letter to the editor of the publication setting out the truthful and correct version of facts,” Ms Vadra added.

Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said she considers “it appropriate, lest any distortion happens, that the facts set out in my letter to the editor are contained in this press release.”

In her bid to clarify that she in no way benefited from any controversial land deal, her release read, “Six years prior to the purported “land deal involving Skylight Hospitality” on April 28, 2006 Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, purchased 40 Kanal 00 Marla ( = 5.0 acres) of agricultural land in Village Amipur, tehsil Faridabad, district Faridabad in Haryana.”

“The land was purchased for a total purchase price of Rs 15,00,000 (rupees fifteen lakh) paid for entirely by cheque, which is the equivalent of Rs 3,00,000 (rupees three lakh) per acre. The source of funds for the aforesaid purchase was rental income of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from property inherited by her from her grandmother Indira Gandhi. The source of funds for this or any other property acquired by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has no relationship whatsoever with Robert Vadra’s finances and/or Skylight Hospitality and no relationship whatsoever with DLF,” the release further maintained.

It further maintained that the “prevailing collector rate for agricultural land in village Amipur, tehsil Faridabad for 2006-07 and as of April 28, 2006 (the date of purchase) was `3,00,000 per acre.” It was claimed that Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra “paid applicable stamp duty of 4% (applying to a women purchaser of rural agricultural land) amounting to `60,000 (rupees sixty thousand) on the purchase price of `15,00,000.”

The release went on to state that Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra “resold the said land to the original vendor pursuant to a right of first refusal on February 17, 2010 (four years later) for a sale price of `80,00,000 entirely by cheque which is the equivalent of `16,00,000 (rupees sixteen lakhs) per acre and was the prevailing market rate at that time.”

It may be recalled that recently the Haryana government submitted in the Supreme Court an inquiry report by the Justice S.N. Dhingra Commission, which had probed alleged irregularities in granting of licences to developers in four villages of Gurgaon by the previous Congress government.

The report submitted to the Haryana government by former high court judge S.N. Dhingra in August last year has not yet been made public. The report apparently probed alleged irregularities in land deals by Mrs Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra. It has been alleged that Mr Vadra had gained from his company Skylight Hospitality’s deal with real estate major DLF after the then Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government granted a change of land use (CLU) certificate to plots owned by the company in Shikohpur village of Gurgaon.