Ashok Khemka (अशोक खेमका) is an Indian civil service bureaucrat.
1945
This was his 45th posting in his 20-year career excluding his 2-year training period.
In the previous month, he had exposed a deal that he thought to be untoward and had requested an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
1988
He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 1988 with a B.Tech degree in Computer Science Engineering and followed it up with a Ph.D in Computer Science from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and an MBA degree in Business Administration and Finance.
Thereafter, he gave his IAS exams and got selected in the Haryana cadre.
He also holds an MA Economics degree from IGNOU.
He is currently a degree candidate for Bachelor of Laws at Punjab University.
1991
He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 1991 batch.
He is best known for cancelling the mutation of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's illegal land deal in Gurgaon.
As of January 2023, he has been transferred 55 times in 30 years by state governments after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted in.
He is a whistleblower of several scams that took place under Bhupinder Hooda's regime, including the Robert Vadra DLF land grab scam, Sonepat-Kharkhoda IMT land scam case, and Garhi Sampla Uddar Gagan land scam.
Ashok Khemka is Haryana's second-most transferred bureaucrat after another retired IAS officer, Pradeep Kasni, who was transferred 71 times in 35 years.
Ashok Khemka was born in Kolkata, India.
He was born in a lower middle class family.
His father was a clerk in a jute factory.
Khemka belongs to the 1991 batch IAS of the Haryana Cadre.
He has been repeatedly transferred by various state governments in his home cadre of Haryana after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted in.
Khemka was posted as Secretary to the Govt.
2000
As per the report there is corruption between inr 200000000000 to inr 3500000000000.
Khemka was most recently Haryana's Director-General of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration.
During his 80-day stint in the department, Khemka had detected serious irregularities in land transactions involving transfer of panchayat land worth several hundred crores of rupees to newly created real estate companies.
2013
of Haryana, Department of Archives and Archaeology on 4 April 2013.
He was also given the charge of DG Archives and Archaeology on 26 April 2013.
The government of Haryana refused this and a Bhiwani-based NGO filed PIL on the same scam.On 18 October 2013, CBI registered a preliminary enquiry into the alleged irregularities in the purchase of wheat seeds in HSDC seeking registration of a case against officials of the National Cooperative Consumers Federation and National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation for selling seeds at inflated prices to HSDC.
"And the transfer this time was quite humiliating. At 15:30, an officer of the rank of Under Secretary of the government, at least five levels below me, appeared with an order of the Principal Secretary of Agriculture, appointing him as the MD of the Corporation and asked me to step down," Khemka told news channels.
Previously Ashok Khemka was Managing Director in Haryana Seeds Development Corporation.
Two chargesheets for Khemka have been filed, one of which accuses him of failing his responsibilities at the Haryana Seed Development Corporation, where Khemka had found corruption and requested for CBI inquiry.
Further Khemka quoted that "I have reliably heard that 10 chargesheets will be filed against me on frivolous grounds along with 10 private complaints,".
The Haryana government was accused of misusing its authority to penalise Ashok Khemka.
2014
The transfers continued under the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Bharatiya Janata Party government which came to power in 2014.
Khemka was made the transport commissioner in November 2014.
But after he launched a drive against overloading and oversized goods vehicles, the truck owners went on strike.
His moves to end long-existing monopolies controlling private bus operations in the state by opening up private operations to Haryana's unemployed youth also provoked a strike by the state transport undertaking (STU) unions.
2015
He was transferred to the archaeology and museums department in April 2015.
2017
In October 2017, Khemka, as the principal secretary, department of social justice and women empowerment had a run-in with his own boss, minister Krishna Bedi over the latter allegedly misusing a department vehicle for over a year.
He had also expressed objection to alleged special treatment being given to Khattar's personal staff on the eve of Diwali.
In November, he was transferred as the principal secretary in the youth affairs and sports department.
2019
In March 2019, he was transferred, for the 52nd time, to Science and Technology Department.
As of March 2019, Khemka has been posted in 51 departments and is currently DG of Archives & Archaeology in Haryana state.
Khemka highlighted land deal corruption in Gurgaon and around for conversion of commercial land.
