Panchkula police register counter-FIRs against IAS officers Ashok Khemka, Sanjeev Verma

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, April 26

Six days after a complaint over alleged irregularities in recruitments in the state Warehousing Corporation in 2009 was made against ACS-rank officer Ashok Khemka, the Panchkula Police on Tuesday registered counter-FIRs based on separate complaints against IAS officers Ashok Khemka and Sanjeev Verma.

However, no investigation will be immediately initiated in either of the two cases.

While the police registered an FIR against the Warehousing Corporation MD, IAS officer Sanjeev Verma, Panchkula resident Ravinder Kumar and others for “criminal conspiracy” on Khemka’s complaint following Home Minister Anil Vij’s intervention, a second FIR was registered against Khemka and three others on the complaint by the warehousing MD which triggered a spat between the two IAS officers.

Though two FIRs have been registered on the basis of the complaints received by the police, sources said no investigation would be initiated in the two FIRs.

Instead, these would now be forwarded to the state government to seek directions on how to proceed. Police sources maintain that no cases against officers can be investigated without the prior permission of the government.

The police, walking a tightrope in the matter given the involvement of two IAS officers, had not registered a case on either of the complaints.

Vij, accompanied by Khemka, reached the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police Mohit Handa, and directed the police to register a case on Khemka’s complaint.

In his complaint to the Panchkula police yesterday, Khemka had alleged that there was a criminal conspiracy to malign his reputation and documents and reports were being manipulated to trap him in the case pertaining to irregularities in the appointment of two manager Grade-I officials in HSWC in 2010.

Giving details of the entire sequence of events in the appointments, Khemka said his name was being dragged into the controversy with “malicious intent” though all notings on the file clearly proved there was no substance in the complaint.

Referring to the police report submitted to Lokayukta in 2016 which said that “no offence was made out” against him, he has pointed out that he was given a clean chit twice.

Sources said a case against Verma and others had been registered under various IPC sections, including 167, 182, 195A, 198, 211, 218 and 120B.

Sources maintained that Khemka had briefed Vij about the “dilly-dallying” attitude of the police in registering an FIR against Verma and others. In his complaint, he said they were acting out of vengeance and had defamed him by making allegations about money changing hands.

Vij, convinced with Khemka’s contentions, arrived at Handa’s office this afternoon with the IAS officer and held a closed-door meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Hanif Qureshi, for 20 minutes.

Later, Vij said the police had been directed to register a case on the complaint given by Khemka. “When a common man comes with a complaint, the police is expected to register an FIR. I was informed that the police is not doing so. This prompted this visit to the CP office,” Vij said after the meeting.

Since the police had not acted on Verma’s complaint that was given on April 20 on grounds that government permission is required to proceed against any officer, by evening it was decided that a counter-FIR be registered against Khemka as well. A case under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against Khemka.

In the complaint by the Warehousing Coporation, it was maintained that 10 posts were advertised in 2009, including five posts of general category, two posts for SC, one for Ex-Servicemen-General (ESM-G) and one post each for BC-A and BC-B. A total of 103 candidates applied for the post in question while 13 people were interviewed and six were selected.

An inquiry committee found that the appointments were not made as per the roster. “In case only six appointments were to be made, the same were to be made as per the roster and the two managers appointed in the Corporation did not possess the requisite qualification and experience.”