JOIN USCharges, counter charges fly thick
An evening of high drama, and charges and counter-charges, culminated in the president expressing his surprise and disappointment at the turn of events and Secretary Brijesh Patel alleging that the president’s men were merely attempting to malign him in the run-up to what is expected to be highly-charged poll.
The documents in question seemingly pertain to the alleged misuse of office in the form of financial irregularities at the KSCA between 1999 and 2007, when Patel was the secretary and Ramdhani was the vice-president.
The Registrar of Societies had on October 14 appointed R V Madhusudhan to probe the financial transactions during the said period following a directive from a division bench of the Karnataka High Court on July 15 to look into the matter within three months of the date of order.
Association CEO M P Ganesh and a few other members of the KSCA staff had, it is alleged, taken the documents to the Deputy Registrar's office in Malleswaram in the afternoon. “After the Registrar of Societies initiated an inquiry, I had presented myself to the Registrar and told them that I took charge as the president on September 9, 2007 and all these transactions had happened before that," Wadiyar told newsmen in the night.
"I had promised to co-operate with the inquiry. Unfortunately, I was taken by surprise today when I came to know that some documents were taken out of the KSCA premises without my knowledge or the knowledge of the managing committee. This is unfortunate. The managing committee will look into this and will decide on the future course of action."
Ganesh, who was present at that point and had expressed his desire to make a statement, was initially prevented from doing so with the 'no trial by the media' line bandied. An hour or so later, the former hockey Olympian merely said, "I don't want to make any comment."
KSCA secretary Patel, however, refused to buy the theory. He said "the inquiry officer of the Registrar of Societies had asked for some documents and we provided them. This is the election year, and all this is being done to malign me," he countered.
“If tomorrow, there is an income tax inquiry, won't you submit the relevant documents? The president was aware of all the developments and in fact, he has given a statement to the Registrar that he will co-operate. The issues they have raised now (financial irregularities) were raised in the last election too; they just want to revive them to malign me.”