34 officials accuse Khurshid’s Trust of forging signs

Swati Mathur TNN

Lucknow: As many as 34 district-level officials in 13 of the 17 districts where the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust run by Union law minister Salman Khurshid and his wife is functional have reported that their signatures had been forged, a preliminary inquiry by the UP government has found.
    The trust has been in the news following revelations that it might have misappropriated or failed to account for Rs 71 lakh and Rs 68 lakh disbursed to the organization in two tranches in 2009-10 and 2011. Khurshid’s wife Louise has denied any wrong-doing in the trust’s functioning.
    In the course of the UP government inquiry, the officials testified that their signatures had been forged. They also said no disabled welfare camps — the purported mandate of the trust — were held nor were any aids for challenged persons distributed.
    Sources in the CM’s office said although Louise, who is project director of the trust, met UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on September 17 to seek a recommendation letter from the state government for release of additional funds for 2012-13, the request is on hold as fund usage in previous years is now under Economic Offences Wing’s (EOW) investigation.
PLOT THICKENS
Nearly 34 district-level officials — from 13 of the 17 districts where the Zakir Hussain Trust functions — testified to the Uttar Pradesh government in a preliminary inquiry that their signatures had been forged on letters certifying the NGO’s work
The officials also said no disabled welfare camps were held in any of the 13 districts and no aids were distributed
Following the findings, Akhilesh Yadav govt in July 2012 asked economic offences wing to probe the allegations and submit a report. The probe is still on Kejriwal doing politics using disabled: Louise
New Delhi: Taking cognizance of reports of the irregularities, the CM ordered an EOW investigation in early July. So far, no case of forgery has been lodged by the EOW as the probe is still on.
    The findings of a preliminary probe by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) that signatures of 34 district-level officials in 13 of the 17 districts where the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust run by Union law minister Salman Khurshid and his wife is functional were forged can only increase pressure on Union law minister Salman Khurshid with India Against Corruption (IAC) campaigner Arvind Kejriwal having already taken to the streets. After leading a protest of differently-abled persons, Kejriwal was back on Parliament Street on Saturday, demanding Khurshid’s resignation.
    Terming “baseless innuendos” the allegations of “money bungling” by her trust, Khurshid’s wife Louise attacked Kerjriwal, accusing him of “doing politics using the shoulders of the disabled”.
    After UP CM Akhilesh Yadav ordered the probe, EOW has been actively pursuing the case with its personnel speaking to officials in the 17 districts where the trust is alleged to have been functioning. EOW director-general Suvrat Tripathi told TOI, “An inquiry into the matter is being conducted at present. It is too early to say, however, whether the allegations of fund misuse are correct.” The CM has sought an investigation of the trust’s activities in 2009-10.
    As TOI reported on Saturday, the scope of the alleged scam seems to be spreading as the Union social justice and empowerment ministry released Rs 68 lakh to the trust in March, 2011, on the basis of a forged letter issued in the name of a UP government bureaucrat who had already retired from service at that point in time. The trust is operating in 17 districts of Etah, Etawah, Mainpuri, Bhadoi, Bulandshahr, Kanshiram Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Allahabad, Farukkhabad, Kannauj, Gautam Budh Nagar, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Siddharth Nagar, Meerut and Aligarh.