Haryana decides to recommend CBI probe against Ashok Khemka

Chandigarh: In fresh trouble for Ashok Khemka, the whistleblower IAS officer who had questioned Robert Vadra-DLF land deals, Haryana Government decided on Saturday to recommend a CBI probe into alleged irregularities by him in a Rs eight-crore deal of state warehousing corporation.

Haryana Chief Secretary S C Chaudhary said this evening that the decision was taken after Khemka was 'prima facie' found guilty in a departmental inquiry into the 2009 deal when he was Managing Director of the Corporation.

"The state government has decided to handover to CBI for enquiry in the allegations made by (one) Ravinder Kumar in the matter of allotment of work to an Ahmadabad based company for installing galvalume roofing sheets on warehouses Ashok Khemka during his tenure as Managing Director, Haryana State Warehousing Corporation in 2009," he said in a statement here.

The Chief Secretary said that the complaint which was received on August 9, 2013 had been forwarded to the Agriculture Department "which had prima facie found truth in the allegations and recommended independent probe".

The complainant had also demanded probe by an CBI agency, Chaudhary said adding, "Hence, the state government has decided to handover the probe to CBI."

Khemka, an IAS officer of 1991 batch, came into limelight after he cancelled mutation of land deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and realty giant DLF in 2012.

The government had issued a charge sheet against Khemka for "wrongly" cancelling the mutation.

Though Khemka could not be contacted on Saturday he had sometime back sent a detailed letter to Haryana chief secretary dismissing the charges against him.

The Haryana government had initiated a probe last year after it received a complaint that Khemka had allegedly changed the terms and conditions of the contract without approval.

Earlier in the day, official sources said here that the proposal for a CBI probe has been approved by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The state home department will now approach the Union Home Ministry for a CBI probe against the IAS officer.

The complainant had alleged corruption saying that Khemka as Managing Director had awarded the deal to a Gujarat based firm without following proper procedure.