Dhingra Commission gets 6-week extension

The Haryana government on Thursday extended the S.N. Dhingra Commission’s term for six weeks. The panel was constituted to investigate into the grant of land licences to a clutch of firms, including that of Robert Vadra’s in Gurgaon, during Congress rule in the state. This is the third extension; it came hours before the end of the deadline.

Dhingra, a former Delhi High Court just, had sought more time to go through some documents. This generated a political row with the Congress hurling allegations at Dhingra for having “sought favors” from the government of Haryana. Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanded the scrapping of the Dhingra Commission as it was “without due cabinet approval and prompted by malice and political considerations.”

The BJP had made the contentious land deals, especially those involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Vadra, a big issue both the 2014 general elections and the subsequent state Assembly polls.

Vadra himself took an aggressive stand over the issue on Thursday. In a post on Facebook, he wrote, “They cannot prove anything without proof n there is nothing there to prove… Almost a decade of governments false and baseless accusations on me!”

Further, he said, “I will always be used for political gains, I know… But I will walk with my head held high as in time and with the truth, which will conquer incorrect perceptions, created! about me.”