Vadra Probe Panel Is Cover Up ‘Gargantuan Land Scams’, Says Watchdog
CHANDIGARH – Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has termed Haryana’s decision to set up a panel to probe his orders to cancel mutation of a land deal between Robert Vadra and DLF as a “cover up to the gargantuan land scams”, and sought relevant file notings from the state government.
Four days after the high-level panel submitted its inquiry report into the cancellation of mutation of 3.5 acre of land in Gurgaon, Khemka stood his ground on his findings in the controversial deal.
In a letter to Haryana Chief Secretary P K Chaudhery on Monday, Khemka, who had as Director General of Consolidation of Holdings, cancelled the mutation of land deal between businessman Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF, wrote that his orders under Sec 42 of East-Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948, were “quasi- judicial and final.”
Currently MD of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation, Khemka has also sought a copy of the government order constituting the inquiry committee, its terms of reference and relevant file noting pages constituting the panel.
On being contacted, Khemka said the committee is a “sham to justify possible action against me as a cover to the gargantuan land scams”.
“All this kind of humiliation and mental torture is to break me down psychologically,” he claimed, adding that “vested interests” in the government have “pre-judged” the matter.
He said he is surprised that the affected individual or the corporate house is “not ostensibly aggrieved.”
In his letter Khemka said, “the remedy for the affected party is to challenge the order by way of filing a writ petition in the high court”.
Khemka has cited a case in which the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on September 6 last year directed the Hooda government to compile all orders of the DG consolidation, where precious panchayat lands were transferred to influential realtor companies.
“One of my orders pertaining to Chirsi village (Faridabad district) is also under challenge,” he wrote.
The probe panel had submitted its report to the state Chief Secretary on December 28.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Vadra had sold 3.53 acre of land at Shikohpur village in Gurgaon district to DLF.
As DG Consolidation, Khemka had on October 15, last year set aside the mutation on the grounds that the assistant consolidation officer who had sanctioned it was not authorised to do so.
