Khemka satisfied with explanation on transfer
Chandigarh, Oct 18 (IBNS)
Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had ordered a probe into a land deal between party supremo Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and realty firm DLF, on Thursday said he was satisfied with the explanation given by Haryana Chief Secretary PK Chaudhary on his transfer.
Khemka met Chaudhary on Thursday.
"I am satisfied with his reply on my transfer," Khemka told reporters.
"He said that transfer was made due to administrative purpose and interest," he said.
Khemka, who was in the Land Registration Department, was shunted out after he also ordered a probe into the deal, reports said on Tuesday.
His transfer was splashed across media outlets on Tuesday and promptly picked by the opposition and activist Arvind Kejriwal to intensify their attack against the Congress-led government at the Centre.
The land in question is an over 3.5-acre plot that Vadra sold to DLF for Rs 58 crore in 2009, according to some reports.
"It is shocking to learn about my abrupt transfer...this is deliberate and malafide to punish me due to some vested elements in the political-bureaucratic hierarchy affected by the expose of the scams in consolidation of land holdings under the exercise of powers," Khemka wrote in his letter to Chief Secretary PK Chaudhary.
Days after ordering the probe on Oct 8, he was shifted as the DG in the Haryana Seed Development Corporation, reports said.
Khemka cancelled the land's mutation before leaving his position.
Social activist turned politician Arvind Kejriwal has made several allegations against Vadra, the reclusive son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, heightening the pitch of attacks against India's ruling party struggling to leave behind a slew of corruption scandals.
Kejriwal "exposed" links between Vadra and the Haryana government with documents that "proved" that the state had favoured the company and acquired land from farmers by trick to hand over to real-estate firm DLF where Vadra held majority shares.
Demanding a white paper on the deals with DLF from the Haryana government, Kejriwal said the farmers were cheated and their land acquired for development of roads and housing for common people were handed over to DLF from where Vadra derived benefits.
On Oct 5, creating a political firestorm, Kejriwal and his team alleged that Vadra made hundreds of crores in return of government favours to the firm.
Kejrwial and his team dropped their "corruption bombshell" by naming Robert Vadra, husband of Priyanka Gandhi, as a beneficiary of Rs 300 crore in a huge property deal by DLF company under which he was allegedly given properties in a throwaway price.