New Delhi:
Senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka, known best for challenging the land dealings of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra, has been accused by the Haryana government of a multitude of failures including dereliction of duty.
The Haryana government, headed by Bhupinder Hooda, has cleared two chargesheets for Mr Khemka, one of which accuses him of failing his responsibilities at the state-run Haryana Seed Development Corporation or HDSC by being unable to sell enough seeds. The two chargesheets, Mr Khemka says, are only a sign of things to come.
"I have reliably heard that 10 chargesheets will be filed against me on frivolous grounds along with 10 private complaints," Mr Khemka, who is currently posted in Chandigarh as the Director General of Archives, told NDTV on Friday night.
However, the whistle-blower's alert has driven the CBI to investigate an alleged scam in HDSC, where Mr Khemka served as Managing Director from late last year to April. He has alleged that other government officers colluded to sell over-priced seeds to the government firm, resulting in a loss of nearly five crores.
"Obviously, my report has impacted interests of powerful people. And now they will try and get back at me. This is a gross abuse of power," Mr Khemka said.
The first chargesheet against the bureaucrat says he exercised powers he did not have by cancelling a 57-crore land deal between Mr Vadra and real estate behemoth DLF in 2008. Mr Khemka, who at the time headed the department that handled all land registrations, had said that the deal was mired in irregularities designed for windfall gains for the entrepreneur.
He was transferred just days later, and his decision was then over-ruled by the government, which said his allegations against Mr Vadra and DLF were unsubstantiated.