Vadra land deal: Commission to draw its own inferences as Hooda abstains (Update)

With Bhupinder Singh Hooda failing to appear before the Justice S N Dhingra commission, which is probing his role in the Robert Vadra's land deal case, the inquiry commission has said that the former Haryana chief minister has the liberty to do so, adding that it would draw its own inferences from the record available with it.

The commission also said that it does not have any specific complaint against Hooda, but had summoned him as part of the probe.

"Since he (BS Hooda) played a major role in grant of licenses, as his concurrence was must for grant of each and every license, the commission had summoned him," the commission said in its order.

"He had all liberty to refresh his memory from the files which were to be put to him by the commission. Shri Hooda instead of appearing before the commission has chosen to stay away from the commission," it added.

The commission had on March 17 summoned Hooda to record his statements regarding the allotment of land to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra promoted Skylight Hospitality company.

Hooda had on March 17 claimed that nothing wrong was done during his tenure as the chief minister of Haryana, adding that allegations against him were politically motivated.

The Justice Dhingra Commission was set up in 2015 to probe the grant of commercial license of land to hundreds of private companies, including Skylight Hospitality and DLF.

Last month, the commission had reportedly summoned Haryana Chief Secretary Deepinder Singh Dhesi and officials of several private firms for recording of statements.