A court here on Saturday ordered the Delhi Police to register an FIR to probe a complaint that two trusts run by Team Anna member and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi were involved in “siphoning off money” from a computer training scheme meant for children and families of para-military and police personnel.
Advocate Devinder Singh Chauhan's complaint said the two trusts received donations for providing free computer training, besides distributing computers free to poor children. But “Ms. Bedi, in collusion with some unknown persons, cheated the Vedanta Foundation and made a plan to cheat the kids of cops and various paramilitary forces and for the purpose, she planned to collect Rs.20,000 per month per training centre.” For “siphoning off money to herself,” Ms. Bedi entered into a donation agreement with Vedanta, by which Rs.6,000 out of the total money of Rs.20,000 was to be paid by Vedanta to her trusts (India Vision Foundation and Navjyoti Foundation), on the false ground that she had arranged for land and electricity for the training centre, the complaint said.
Mr. Chauhan said the land and electricity were arranged by the police organisation, and not by Ms. Bedi. “Neither Ms. Bedi nor any of her associates disclosed the fact to Vedanta that they are illegally charging Rs.6,000 for each centre for the expenses [of] rent of the building and charges of electricity.”
Another allegation is that Ms. Bedi got permission for setting up four community centres on a “misleading undertaking that she will not charge any fee from students” for courses. But “contrary to the undertaking she is charging Rs.15,000 per student…”.
Mr. Chauhan demanded an Enforcement Directorate probe into receipt of donations by the two trusts from abroad. Two controversies that emerged earlier — donations to India Against Corruption being diverted to the Public Cause Research Foundation, and Ms. Bedi inflating air fare bills — also find mention in the complaint.
