Ashok Khemka writes to CBI chief, seeks reinvestigation in seed scam

CHANDIGARH: Perturbed by CBI's closure report in the Haryana seed scam, IAS officer Ashok Khemka approached the agency's director to seek reinvestigation into the matter. "It appears that the closure report is not based on sound professional grounds," Khemka said in his letter to the CBI director on Friday.

Khemka had highlighted the issue about two years ago when he was the managing director of Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) saying that the corporation had purchased about one lakh quintal of wheat seeds at higher rates in 2010.

In its report tabled recently in the state assembly, the Comptroller of Auditor General ( CAG) maintained that the state had purchased the seeds at higher rates, leading to an extra expenditure of about Rs 3 crore. However, the CBI has closed the preliminary enquiry (PE), which was registered by the agency in 2013 on the complaint of Khemka. The bureau reportedly found that allegations of buying certified wheat seeds at exorbitant rates and causing a loss to the state exchequer could not be substantiated. The closure report, according to the officer, seems to be based on the defence of suspects and private suppliers "deliberately ignoring his complaint and completely overlooking several incriminating evidence available on record which clearly establish the guilt of the suspects acting in criminal collusion causing wrongful losses to the state exchequer".

Hinting at the collusion of some officials of Haryana government and central cooperative agencies with private suppliers, Khemka claimed that the illegal gains made in such transactions by suppliers were shared with people on the buy side. "It is clear to any discerning mind that the purchase procedure adopted was tailor-made to misappropriate government money by taking private seeds supplies at higher than market rates through the backdoor," he said.