Haryana govt drops penalty chargesheet against Khemka

The Haryana government on Wednesday dropped a major penalty chargesheet against senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka, a huge relief for the whistleblower officer who was facing disciplinary proceedings in connection with his cancellation of a controversial land deal by Robert Vadra.

The decision that cleared the decks for Khemka’s promotion to the rank of principal secretary next year came after chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar heard out the IAS officer’s complaints last month. Chief secretary DS Dhesi will issue a formal order scrapping the major penalty chargesheet soon.

The 1991-batch IAS officer was chargesheeted in September 2013 during the previous Congress regime for allegedly overstepping jurisdiction while junking the mutation of 3.5 acres of Gurgaon land sold by Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Vadra to realty giant DLF.

Khemka hit the headlines when he publicly questioned the R58 crore deal and criticised the then Congress-run administration’s policies. He was transferred soon after and given a slew of lowprofile assignments, triggering allegations from the BJP that he was being targeted for uncovering corruption.

The officer, who has been transferred 46 times in his 23-year-long career, also spoke out to express his “pain” for being shunted out for trying to “bring reforms”.

Earlier this year, Khemka submitted a statement of defence to the state government and expressed willingness to be heard in person by the CM, the authority in disciplinary matters pertaining to IAS officers. The chargesheet against Khemka could have resulted anything between a reduction in pay-scale to dismissal of service.