Crorepati Bureaucrats: Haryana’s Top Officers Declare Lavish Property Holdings

Disclosures reveal top officials quietly own real estate worth crores across multiple states.

CHANDIGARH: In a surprising disclosure, several senior IAS and IPS personnel from the Haryana cadre have declared property holdings totalling several crores, including luxury residences, farmhouses, and acres of land—many of which are located outside the state.

The facts were revealed in statutory files submitted to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) as part of an annual transparency exercise.

However, what has piqued the public’s interest is not the disclosures themselves, but the enormous magnitude and scope of assets held by bureaucrats tasked with serving the public.

Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi has a flat each in Gurugram and Panchkula, and a mango orchard in Uttar Pradesh. Home Secretary Sumita Misra stated a builder floor in Delhi valued at ₹3.5 crore, whereas Principal Secretary to CM Nayab Saini, Arun Gupta, has land in Hisar worth ₹2.5 crore.

The shock does not end there. Ashok Khemka, a bureaucrat who has been all along linked to anti-corruption activities, owns a flat in Gurugram worth ₹3 crore. DGP Shatrujeet Kapur has property in Mohali, Kapurthala, and Bathinda, while his wife has a Gurugram house worth ₹4 crore.

These disclosures—put together by Dainik Bhaskar—are derived from information from 169 IAS and 106 IPS officers who are on duty in Haryana.Though the disclosures are legal and obligatory, the sudden wealth of bureaucrats, particularly those renowned for their integrity, has set off public interest and subdued debate regarding the changing financial picture of India’s senior bureaucrats.