BJP legislator asked to return misused funds - with interest

GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat High Court Monday held that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Shankar Chaudhari had misused money from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for his own benefit and asked him to repay the sum with ten percent interest.

Disposing a public interest lawsuit by Farsu Goklani who charged Chaudhuri - who represents Radhanpur in north Gujarat - with misuse of public funds, a division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi also slapped a fine of Rs. 25,000 on the legislator.

Goklani alleged that Chaudhari had fraudulently obtained a sum of about Rs.21 lakh from the fund for repairing a school which was damaged during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.

The school was run by Chaudhari’s Swami Vivekananda Vikas Mandal trust but the school building was owned by a different trust, the Sarvodaya Arogya Nidhi.

The legislator had diverted the money to his own trust and then bought land on which the school run by his trust now stands.

Chaudhari had submitted before the court that the money was deposited directly with the National Buildings Construction Corporation and neither he nor any trustee of Swami Vivekananda Vikas Mandal was involved in the transaction.

The high court March 19 directed Chaudhari to file his submission by April 7 whether he intended to deposit the disputed money with interest or not. Chaudhari, however, had shown his inability to repay.

The court had observed earlier that that there was a “scam” somewhere in the case.