NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from Gandhian Anna Hazare to a PIL seeking a CBI probe into alleged misuse and diversion of funds received from the government for rural development as had been pointed out by the Justice Sawant Committee report in 2005.
Petitioner M L Sharma, who faced a barrage of questions from the court on September 12, filed an additional affidavit detailing the basis of the allegations and a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai issued notices to Hazare, the Centre, Maharashtra government and CBI.
Sharma alleged that Hazare and his associates floated a public trust, Hind Swaraj Trust, in village Ralegan Siddhi in 1995 with a capital of just Rs 500 and received Rs 45 lakh from the Centre for 1994-95 even before the trust was registered followed by Rs 65.85 lakh from the state government for 1995-96.
"This is a clear case of fraud and criminal breach of trust involving public funds as how could a trust, which was not born and having funds not more than Rs 500 as capital for registration on February 21, 1995, be spending Rs 45 lakh for the period 1994-95," the petitioner advocate said.
He said despite the irregularities spelt out clearly in the Justice Sawant Committee report, no action had been taken either by the state or the central government.
"The report further disclosed that in 1994 Hazare had secured another Rs 75 lakh from Capart (Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology). In 2001, Capart had released Rs 5 crore to Hazare in the name of rural help," the petitioner said.
Sharma said the extent of utilisation of funds, given to the trust from the consolidated fund of India, could be discovered only if the apex court ordered a probe and closely monitored it. He alleged that a case of misappropriation of money and cheating was made out against Hazare and his trust.
The petitioner also said that in its July 18, 2010 report, Capart had released a list of NGOs blacklisted by it for fund misuse, but complained that the central government had not initiated any action or criminal investigation into the role of these bodies.
Petitioner M L Sharma, who faced a barrage of questions from the court on September 12, filed an additional affidavit detailing the basis of the allegations and a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai issued notices to Hazare, the Centre, Maharashtra government and CBI.
Sharma alleged that Hazare and his associates floated a public trust, Hind Swaraj Trust, in village Ralegan Siddhi in 1995 with a capital of just Rs 500 and received Rs 45 lakh from the Centre for 1994-95 even before the trust was registered followed by Rs 65.85 lakh from the state government for 1995-96.
"This is a clear case of fraud and criminal breach of trust involving public funds as how could a trust, which was not born and having funds not more than Rs 500 as capital for registration on February 21, 1995, be spending Rs 45 lakh for the period 1994-95," the petitioner advocate said.
He said despite the irregularities spelt out clearly in the Justice Sawant Committee report, no action had been taken either by the state or the central government.
"The report further disclosed that in 1994 Hazare had secured another Rs 75 lakh from Capart (Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology). In 2001, Capart had released Rs 5 crore to Hazare in the name of rural help," the petitioner said.
Sharma said the extent of utilisation of funds, given to the trust from the consolidated fund of India, could be discovered only if the apex court ordered a probe and closely monitored it. He alleged that a case of misappropriation of money and cheating was made out against Hazare and his trust.
The petitioner also said that in its July 18, 2010 report, Capart had released a list of NGOs blacklisted by it for fund misuse, but complained that the central government had not initiated any action or criminal investigation into the role of these bodies.
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