E-Paper
Warehousing corporation appointments: Haryana lokayukta disposes of complaint as infructuous
A complaint pertaining to alleged illegal appointments in the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) was disposed of as infructuous by Haryana lokayukta Justice (retd) Hari Pal Verma last week.
A complaint pertaining to alleged illegal appointments in the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) was disposed of as infructuous by Haryana lokayukta Justice (retd) Hari Pal Verma last week.
The complaint was rendered infructuous after the complainant, Ravinder Kumar submitted before the lokayukta that since a first information report (FIR) was registered by the police at Panchkula in April 2022 against senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka and others, he is not pressing this complaint against police officials/respondents.
“As the main complaint is rendered infructuous, all other pending applications are disposed of accordingly,” said the April 24 order of the lokayukta, Justice (retd) Hari Pal Verma.
An additional chief secretary rank officer, Khemka, a former HSWC manager, Som Nath, former assistant manager, SC Kansal and former assistant Naresh Kumar were booked under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (criminal misconduct by a public servant). The FIR, legal experts said, was legally flawed as Panchkula police overlooked the legal requirement of the prior approval of the state government before the registration of the FIR under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Khemka had in December 2022 filed an intervention application before the lokayukta seeking directions to the chief secretary to inquire as to how the FIR by the Panchkula police was registered against him in a hurry without following the due process established by the law.
The IAS officer in his intervention application had also prayed for dismissal of a complaint pertaining to irregularities in the selection of managers during his 2009-10 stint as managing director of the HSWC.
Recently, his IAS colleague, Sanjeev Verma also filed an application before the lokayukta for impleading him as a party in the same complaint. Citing a Hindustan Times news report of December 2022, Verma wrote that since senior IAS officer Khemka has made serious allegations against him in an intervention application, it is important that he be impleaded as party to the proceedings to enable him to explain the factual position.
While Sanjeev Verma as the then MD of the HSWC in April 2022 had sought registration of an FIR against Khemka and three others for allegedly making appointments in the HSWC in an illegal and arbitrary manner, the Panchkula police on Khemka’s complaint had simultaneously registered a criminal case against Verma for making a false charge of offence and framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury.
