Give 10-day notice before probe sanction against Khemka: HC

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday directed Haryana government to give 10-day notice to senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka before according sanction for probe against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act in an FIR registered in April 2022.

The high court bench of justice Avneesh Jhingan passed the order while disposing of plea from the 1991 batch IAS officer filed in July, seeking quashing of the FIR and stay on any proceedings arising out of it.

Court has already restrained police from taking any coercive step against the IAS officer. However, Khemka will have to join the probe. Detailed order of Tuesday’s proceedings is awaited.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Sanjeev Verma, then managing director of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC), on April 26 at the Sector-5 police station in Panchkula.

The allegations are of making appointments at HSWC in an illegal and arbitrary manner when Khemka served as its MD in 2009-2010.

Khemka had argued that enquiry in this case started in April, 2020 and no sanction as contemplated under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was obtained. It is a statutory requirement given in order to protect public servants. During the proceedings in HC, the government had admitted that there was no prior sanction for registration of FIR.

As per Khemka, same set of allegations have been inquired into by the police in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and no cognizable or any other offence was concluded to be found out. Khemka had levelled allegations of being vindictive against Verma on whose complaint the FIR was registered.

Verma, too, was booked on Khemka’s complaint. The criminal case against him has been registered under the sections pertaining to a public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury, threatening any person to give false evidence, using as true a certificate known to be false, and criminal conspiracy.