DSC Estate Developers Pvt Ltd, according to records of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, has two directors — Dharam Singh of South Extension in New Delhi and Satish Singh Chhoker of Samalkha in Panipat. Satish is the son of Dharam Singh Chhoker, MLA from Samalkha who along with four others left the Haryana Janhit Congress of Kuldeep Bishnoi and joined the Congress in November 2009. Chhoker was the only one of the five not rewarded with a ministerial or equivalent berth in the Haryana government after the defection — of the four, two are ministers and two chief parliamentary secretaries.

The 10.2 acres for which DSC Estate Developers Pvt Ltd entered into a “collaboration agreement” will become part of Gurgaon Sector 68 once the master plan is finalised. Incidentally, this land is situated close to the 40 acres purchased by a firm owned by the business partners of former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, who is currently in custody for his alleged role in the death of MDLR air hostess Geetika Sharma. The land deal involving Kanda’s partners was first reported by The Indian Express on September 14.

In the “collaboration agreement” with the eight individuals, the word August has been crossed out and September written on top. It was submitted to the Joint Sub Registrar, Gurgaon, on September 10, 2012, and finally registered on September 25, 2012. The agreement, on behalf of DSC Estate Developers, was signed by Satish Singh Chhoker as its “authorised representative”.

All payments for the land were made on August 22, a week before the government approved the draft plan and invited objections. The firm paid land owners Satya Parkash Rs 1,00,87,500; Ved Parkash Mangla Rs 1,00,87,500; Om Parkash Mangla Rs 58,75,000; Jai Bhagwan Mangla Rs 78,75,000; and, Mukesh Kumar Mangla, Suresh Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and Sanjay Mangla Rs 17,18,750 each through bank pay orders.

In the 24-page agreement, there is also a clause which clearly states: “Developer will incur considerable expenditure, effort and expertise in getting the said land use changed and obtaining the licence/permission for the proposed project, notwithstanding anything/clause contained in agreement, the owners/or his nominees or his legal heirs shall not cancel, rescind or back out and or withdraw from this agreement under any circumstances and the possession of the said land once handed over to the developer shall not be disturbed by the owners.”

When he was asked about his involvement with the DSC Estate Developers Pvt Ltd, Dharam Singh Chhoker said he had no role. He said his son Satish Chhoker had entered into an agreement with farmers for development of the land.

”I do not own even an inch of land in Gurgaon. My son has made an agreement with the land owners for development of that land. Is it a crime to do business,” he asked.

”This agreement was done after notification of the plan. We do not own the land. Whatever is done will be for the benefit of farmers. The land owners got to know about the revised plan and approached us. We are only trying to help them,” he said.

Asked about the claim that this was a “reward for joining” the Congress, Chhoker said: “I did not take any ministerial position. This is a clear-cut business proposition. Agar mere bete ne apni roti rozi ke liye koi chhoti-moti collaboration ki bhi to kaya galat kiya (If my son has entered into a small collaboration to earn a living, what is wrong)?”

When his comments were sought, T C Gupta, Director (Town and Country Planning), Haryana, said: “How does it matter to whom the land belongs? We wanted to provide a highway bigger than the national highway to interconnect Gurgaon and Faridabad, ease traffic chaos on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway. If left unattended, this particular piece of land would have been prone to illegal occupation, so we decided to bring it under the plan. It did not matter who the land belonged to, who purchased it for development and within which period.”