Khemka was chargesheeted in December, 2013 by the then Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Khemka was chargesheeted in December, 2013 by the then Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Haryana has dropped disciplinary proceedings against senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka who was chargesheeted by the previous Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda for cancelling the mutation of a land deal between M/s Skylight Hospitality of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and real estate major DLF Universal.

Chief Secretary D S Dhesi, in his order Friday, said proceedings against Khemka were being dropped because “the competent authority, after going through the chargesheet, relevant record, material provided by him in his reply, background notes… has come to the conclusion that the charges… are not proved against him”.

Hours after the all-clear, Khemka tweeted: “Exonerated after 700-day ordeal. Allegations labelled as charge was my duty as public servant. Beholden to Almighty.” He earlier told The Indian Express: “I was called for a personal hearing by the Chief Minister on October 6 in his office. I went to him and explained the reply I had already submitted to the state government.”

The seven-page chargesheet, issued in December 2013 by the Hooda government, had accused Khemka of six offences, including “erroneous orders”. He submitted his reply to the state government earlier this year.

The chargesheet had been signed by former Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Chaudhery after Hooda approved action against Khemka under Rule 8 of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules.

The chargesheet against Khemka made out these six offences (he rejected all charges in his reply):

1. Delayed relinquishing of charge – Khemka was transferred from the Consolidation of Land Holdings department on October 11, 2012. However, he relinquished charge on October 15. On October 12, he had cancelled the mutation of land deal between Robert Vadra’s M/s Skylight Hospitality and real estate giant DLF Universal Ltd. He was charged with causing damage to the reputation of both the parties. He was accused of not leaving the charge “intentionally” even after four days of his transfer orders.

2. Exceeded jurisdiction – Cancellation of mutation was not within Khemka’s jurisdiction. Further, he passed the order without giving any opportunity of being heard to the party concerned.

3. Erroneous orders – On October 12, 2012, Khemka had directed the then Deputy Commissioners of Palwal, Faridabad, Mewat and Gurgaon to probe whether stamp duty was paid in Vadra’s land deals executed after 2005. These orders were wrong as “Khemka ordered probe into the land deals of only one firm while 3,000 land deals were executed during 2005-2012”.

4. Wrong suggestion – Khemka, as Director General, Land Consolidation, gave “suggestion” to the Town and Country Planning department, “unnecessarily”telling the department what should have been done before renewal of (Vadra’s) Change of Land Use (CLU) licence.

5. Criticising government and its policy in the media – Khemka approached the media after cancelling the mutation and criticized government policies.

6. Violation of rules – Khemka violated rules 3, 5, 6 and 7 of All India Service (Conduct) Rules.

However, all these six charges, mentioned in his chargesheet were vehemently refuted by Khemka. In his volumnous reply submitted to the state government, Khemka stood by his stand and negated all the charges levelled against him in the chargesheet.

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