Haryana to recommend CBI probe against Ashok Khemka

CHANDIGARH: In fresh trouble for Ashok Khemka, Haryana Government has decided to recommend a CBI probe against the whistleblower IAS officer for alleged irregularities in awarding a Rs eight crore deal to a Gujarat-based firm when he was Managing Director of State Warehousing Corporation in 2009.

Official sources said that the proposal for a CBI probe, which was submitted by the state Home department, 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 sources said.

The probe is being ordered following a complaint by an RTI activist, who alleged corruption in the Rs eight crore deal for purchase of galvalume sheets for warehouses, the sources.

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

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

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

Though Khemka was not available for comment today, he had sometime back sent a detailed letter to the 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 of competent authorities.