Gurugram: Three weeks after senior Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka questioned the “slow probe” into the Vadra-DLF land deal, mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 promise on the issue, Sanjeev Verma, another senior IAS officer, has written to Haryana Chief Secretary T.V.S.N. Prasad seeking disciplinary and criminal action against Khemka.
Verma, a 2004-batch IAS officer who was promoted from the Haryana Civil Services, is the commissioner of the state’s Rohtak Division as well as managing director of the Haryana Women Development Corporation, while Khemka, a 1991-batch IAS officer, is additional chief secretary of the state’s printing and stationery department.
In a 6 April post on X, Khemka raised the issue of the allegedly corrupt land deal that he had exposed when the Congress was in power in Haryana.
Khemka had in 2012, as director general of Haryana’s land consolidation and holdings department, cancelled the mutation of a 3.5-acre land deal between Skylight Hospitality — a company linked to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra — and the realty major DLF in Gurugram’s Manesar-Shikohpur.
“Why is the investigation into the Vadra-DLF deal slow? It has been 10 years. How much more to wait? The Dhingra Commission report is also in cold storage. Sinners are having a good time. Why is the ruler’s intention weak? The promise made by the prime minister to the country in 2014 should be remembered,” Khemka asked on social media.
The BJP had alleged irregularities in land deals and made the Vadra-DLF deal a major issue in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as well as the Haryana assembly elections, though Vadra as well as Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the then CM, had denied the charges.
After the BJP formed a government in Haryana in 2014 with Manohar Lal Khattar as CM, the state set up a commission of inquiry under Justice S.N. Dhingra (retired) in 2015 to probe the deal.
In January 2019, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the Dhingra Commission report citing procedural irregularities and restrained the government from making it public.
Then in April last year, the Haryana Police submitted an affidavit in the high court stating that revenue officials had found “no violation of rules/regulations” in the transfer of land by Skylight Hospitality to DLF.
Verma, who was embroiled in a battle of tweets, complaints and FIRs with Khemka in 2022, wrote to the Haryana chief secretary Friday seeking action against Khemka for “violation of the Model Code of Conduct, provoking electors and promoting feelings of enmity and hatred”. The Print has accessed a copy of the letter.
In the letter with the subject ‘Criticism of government by Mr Ashok Khemka on X’, Verma Khemka, a government servant, was criticising the government. He also said that by targeting the prime minister, Khemka was questioning the intentions of the head of the government at a time when the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls is in operation.
Reproducing Khemka’s post on social media, Verma said the message had been put up at a time when the Election Commission of India had already announced the Lok Sabha elections, and polling was scheduled in Haryana on 25 May.
“In view of the elections, such a message of a government servant on social media is hateful, controversial, disputed and not only provokes the electors but also promotes feeling of enmity and hatred,” the letter by Verma reads.
He further said that Khemka’s post was violative of the MCC for which the officer was liable to be punished under sections 125 and 127 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code.
Sections 125 and 127 relate to promoting or attempting to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of citizens of India, and acting or inciting others to act in a disorderly manner, respectively. Both sections are punishable with imprisonment, or fine, or both. Section 153-A of the IPC also relates to promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial to harmony and is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years or fine or both.
Verma didn’t reply to ThePrint’s calls over the phone, while Khemka was not available for queries.
Also Read: Punishment postings for civil servants have changed over time, but stigma remains the same
How did battle of the officers start?
The tussle between Verma and Khemka began over recruitments to the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) where Verma joined as managing director (MD) in April 2022.
Days after joining the body, Verma recommended the registration of a criminal case for alleged irregularities in HSWC appointments made during Khemka’s tenure as its MD more than a decade ago.
He sent a formal complaint to the Sector 5 police station in Panchkula for the registration of a criminal case against Khemka and three HSWC officials over the recruitment of two manager Grade-I officials, Pradip Kumar and Surinder Singh, in 2010. He also dismissed the two officers.
Six days later, Khemka, accompanied by Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, reached the office of the deputy commissioner of police, Panchkula, Mohit Dhanda. Later, the three met with the Commissioner of Police, Hanif Qureshi, for nearly half an hour. After emerging from the meeting, Vij told the media that he had asked the police officers to register an FIR on Khemka’s complaint against Verma and one Ravinder Kumar.
Ravinder, a Panchkula resident, was the complainant in the case based on which Verma had ordered the registration of FIR against Khemka, who had served as the HSWC MD from 2009 to 2010.
In his complaint, Khemka accused Verma and Ravinder of hatching a conspiracy against him.
“Verma misused his position as the HSWC MD in conspiracy with Ravinder to file a false complaint in an act of revenge and with a corrupt motive,” the complaint read. The allegations were denied by Verma.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: How ‘mass leaders’ Bhupinder Hooda & son kept ‘fractured’ Haryana Congress active despite 9 yrs out of power