Gurgaon:
The Haryana government has said that IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who has been transferred for opening an inquiry into land deals involving Robert Vadra, had himself asked to be moved out of the land transfers department. It has also said that the IAS officer has "tried to link this transfer to certain actions that he has taken on subsequent dates without any basis", alluding to the inquiry. The state government has also refuted the basis of Mr Khemka's cancellation of the transfer of a piece of land in Manesar to Mr Vadra.
Mr Khemka has reacted to this saying that the government was "mixing things up" and that he never asked to be removed from the post of director general of land transfers and that the inquiry had been started before he was ordered to move.
Mr Khemka had written to the chief secretary of Haryana earlier in October asking to be moved out from one of the posts he was holding, since he said that junior officers could overturn his decisions. He had wanted to be relieved as special collector, though, not as Director, Consolidation. Both positions are in the department that handles land transfers, so there are questions over why he was completely removed from the department.
"The government is trying to mix up two things. I had pleaded that post of Special Collector is below my rank so I had requested the chief secretary to relieve me of it. But I never asked government to remove me as DG, Land Consolidation," Mr Khemka said in Chandigarh. "The government is trying to justify a premature transfer." He also said that the inquiry was ordered on October 8 and not after he was transferred.
Haryana government says it has transferred Mr Khemka "in compliance of the directions dated 1st October, 2012 of the Honourable Punjab and Haryana High Court". Mr Khemka had moved court to be relieved of the post of Special Collector, which the government says is "traditionally held by Director Consolidation".
(Read: Full statement by Haryana government)The state government has said that it has "nonetheless ordered an inquiry into all the issues raised by Shri Khemka" and will be completed in a month.
The papers also claim that there was no undervaluation of the land sold to Mr Vadra. The government has claimed that price at which the land in Manesar was sold to Mr Vadra as well as the price at which he subsequently sold it to DLF" were way higher than the collector rates. Hence, no loss to revenue of the State has been caused by these sale deeds".
The land was bought by Mr Vadra for Rs 7.5 crore in 2008 and sold in 65 days to real estate giant DLF for Rs 58 crore. The has raised doubts about the deal, as well as the fact that by the time the land was in the possession of DLF, its land use had been changed from agricultural to residential, which escalates the value several times over.
The Haryana government has said that Mr Khemka's position that the official who cleared the mutation (or transfer) of the Manesar land to Mr Vadra was not authorised to do so is incorrect. It has released papers to show the level at which the officer who signed off the deal, which Mr Khemka questioned, was in fact authorised to do so.