The court of the District and Sessions Judge, Panchkula, will now decide the transfer application, filed by an advocate, Ravinder Kumar, praying for transferring cases against retired IAS officer Ashok Khemka and Ambala Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma from the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate to a competent court that can hear cases under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. The matter is fixed for June 4.
On April 26, 2022, the police registered an FIR in Panchkula against Khemka for alleged fraudulent recruitment in the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On the same day, an FIR was registered against Verma on Khemka’s complaint for alleged tampering with documents. The FIR against Verma was registered when the then Home Minister, Anil Vij, accompanied Khemka to the Panchkula police headquarters. Later, the Prevention of Corruption Act was also added against Verma.
Khemka retired on April 30, 2025. Thereafter, the state government refused ex post facto permission under Section 17A of the PC Act in cases against Khemka and Verma. As the FIRs were registered without prior permission, the police were seeking ex post facto approval.
Thereafter, the police filed closure reports in both cases, but the reports have yet to be accepted by the court.
Meanwhile, Khemka filed a protest petition against the closure report on May 30. He prayed that the court may order an investigation into the false complaint made with malicious intent to register an FIR against him.
On the other hand, in his transfer application, Ravinder Kumar, who is an accused along with Verma, claimed that Khemka had not succeeded in getting the FIR quashed under Section 482 of the CrPC before the High Court. He said the matter of illegal appointments was under consideration in Letters Patent Appeal before the High Court on the civil side and had no bearing upon criminal proceedings.
