Ashok Khemka calls Robert Vadra deals 10 years of loot

CHANDIGARH: Ashok Khemka, who acted as the whistleblower in the Robert Vadra land deal case in Haryana, has said that a clean chit from the Election Commission (EC) stating that there is no poll code violation does not mean no financial wrongdoing has been committed in the transaction involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law.

Talking to ET, the IAS officer said the EC has only maintained that there was no violation of the election code of conduct as the deal was done before September 12 when the code came into force after assembly polls for Haryana were announced.

“Ten years of loot can’t be absolved just like that. EC has only said that there was no poll code violation. This is not a clean chit (for Vadra),” Khemka said. The land deal was cleared on July 16. Khemka underlined that corruption was an “intricate issue” and cannot be seen only as somebody giving money “off hand” for a deal and somebody else accepting it. The bureaucrat who has faced more than 44 transfers in his 23 year career, said the EC gave its judgement only on the basis of the facts presented to it by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.

Earlier in the day, BJP had wondered if all the facts relating to the case were put by the Congress government in Haryana before the poll panel.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has raised questions on the role of the state government in the whole affair. Congress leader Salman Khurshid dismissed this allegation and said this is an attempt to “stonewall” the due process. “EC is nobody to say that there was no wrongdoing in the case,” Khemka told ET.

He also accused the media of distorting facts relating to the case and focusing only on whether it was a poll code violation. “This is the height of ridiculousness by the media,” the officer said. Meanwhile, INLD has also said the process followed in the land deal is “wrong and illegal”.

“This is not an election code violation issue. I don't know how the prime minister went wrong on this. The process followed in the land deal is wrong and illegal” RS Chaudhary, senior leader of INLD told ET.