Over a year after the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the state government in Haryana, it has decided to drop charges against senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who was accused of "exceeding his jurisdiction" by the Congress party who was in power at the time. Khemka had cancelled Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's land deal with real estate giant DLF.
According to reports, the decision was taken late Tuesday night after a long meeting between Haryana state ministers. Khemka himself seemed unaware of the developments until media reports on the matter.
No information from Government on decision in charge sheet issued on 4th Dec 2013. Media story is sweet music to my ears.
— Ashok Khemka, IAS (@AshokKhemka_IAS) November 4, 2015
A seven-page chargesheet was filed against Khemka in December 2013 under the Congress government in the state led by then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Last week, Haryana chief secretary DS Dhesi turned down the chargesheet, reported Indian Express, quoting Sanjeev Kaushal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister.
Khemka had been apparently called for a personal hearing with present Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar last month, where he was asked to explain his reply which he had earlier submitted to the state government, he told Express. In his reply, he had vehemently denied all six charges against him levelled by the Congress government.
Earlier this year, Khemka had been transferred for the 46th time in 22 years, to an ostensibly defunct position as Secretary and Director General in the Archaeology and Museums Department.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to DS Dhesi as Haryana chief minister, instead of chief secretary. The error is regretted.
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