Ashok Khemka, IAS officer who flagged Robert Vadra land deal, retires today after 57 transfers. All you need to know

Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ashok Khemka, who was transferred 57 times, is retiring today after a 34-year career. The 1991-batch officer will retire as Additional Chief Secretary, Transport Department, where he has been posted since December 2024.

The Haryana-cadre IAS officer shot to limelight in 2012 when he first flagged the alleged irregularities in the land deal between Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra‘s Skylight Hospitality and DLF Universal Ltd. The investigation in the case is on, and no one has been arrested yet for the alleged irregularities in the land deal.

On April 15, Vadra appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over alleged irregularities in his company’s land deal in 2007-08.

The land deal sparked a row Khemka, then posted as director general, consolidation of holdings, set aside the mutation (number 4513) of Sky Light’s 3.53 acre on October 15, 2012.

A mutation is part of the process of transferring ownership of a piece of land. A report in the Hindustan Times said Khemka's order to set aside the mutation was never given effect by the Gurugram revenue administration.

Who is Ashok Khemka?

Born in Kolkata on April 30, 1965, Khemka earned a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1988. After this, he completed a PhD in Computer Science from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and an MBA specialising in Business Administration and Finance.

While in service, he also completed his LLB from Punjab University, news agency PTI said.

Khemka, who cracked the IAS in 1991, is usually referred as an honest upright officer. But throughout his career, he faced 57 transfers, probably the highest among the state's bureaucracy. Last December, Khemka returned to the transport department of Haryana, which is currently headed by Minister Anil Vij in the Nayab Saini-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

‘Prize of honesty is humiliation’

"Transferred again. Same thing again. Constitution Day was celebrated yesterday. Today, the orders and rules of the Supreme Court were violated yet again. Some will be pleased. After all, I have been pushed to final corner. Prize of honesty is humiliation," Khemka said in a post on X  in Hindi on 26 November, 2019, when he was transferred 53rd time. 

Khemka then Principal Secretary, Science and Technology in Haryana was shifted to the Archives, Archaeology and Museums Department in the same rank.

Interestingly, Khemka completes his 33-year, seven-month bureaucratic service on April 30, Wednesday, his birthday. He turns 60 today.

Known for his crusade against corruption, Khemka’s worked during the tenures of seven chief ministers of Haryana. These are Om Prakash Chautala, Bhajan Lal, Bansi Lal, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Manohar Lal Khattar, and Nayab Singh Saini, the present one.

'Root out corruption'

Despite short stints, Khemka kept highlighting alleged irregularities that came to his notice wherever he was posted, usually less significant departments, ever since he brought up the Vadra-DLF land deal in 2012.

In 2023, Khemka wrote to then Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and offered to "root out corruption" with a stint in the vigilance department. He said he had sacrificed his service career in his zeal to end corruption.

"Lopsided distribution of work does not serve public interest," he wrote.

Over his entire career, on average, he has been transferred about every six months, news agency PTI said.

Earlier, he had been posted to the Archives department for the fourth time—three of these stints were during the tenure of the BJP-led government.

He earlier served as the director general and later the principal secretary of the Archives department. He was first transferred to the department in 2013 when the Congress party was in power in Haryana.

(With PTI inputs)