Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra was involved in shady land deals, has been given a central government posting. Sources even said that Khemka may join the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), although no official confirmation was forthcoming.
Sources in the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said 20 posts of joint secretaries, including three vacancies in the PMO (department of atomic energy, personnel and training and in general branch), are currently vacant. Further, a post of joint secretary also lies vacant in the NATGRID, under ministry of home affairs.
Khemka has been transferred over 40 times in his 22-year-old career as a bureaucrat, mostly for taking on his political bosses.
Speculation over his return to the PMO follows the Cabinet Secretary's decision to clear the 49-year-old of allegations of misuse of official powers. His argument that a Haryana government charge-sheet against him was "political" has been accepted by the new government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Earlier this year, Khemka had earlier a letter seeking central deputation in April. The DoPT rejected his request, informing him that he could not be empaneled because of the Haryana government's charge-sheet against him.
The charge-sheet by the Congress-led Haryana government in December accused him of "causing damage to Robert Vadra's reputation" by cancelling his land deal in 2012. Khemka had alleged that the Rs 57-crore deal between Vadra and real estate giant DLF in 2012 violated rules to facilitate windfall gains for the businessman. The Haryana government had also alleged that Khemka's decision to cancel the deal was an administratively improper step since he stood transferred as Managing Director of Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) on October 11, 2012 from his earlier post of Director General Consolidation of Land Holdings and Land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration. Just a few months before the general elections, the Haryana government had even recommended a CBI probe into a contract awarded by Khemka to a Gujarat firm in 2009. Khemka was subsequently made the Director General, Archive.
A Congress spokesman said Khemka's possible appointment was the administration's prerogative, and wished the government and the officer well.
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