The Crime Branch will probe the alleged financial irregularities in the conduct of the ‘Karuna’ music fest organised by Kochi Music Foundation (KMF).
District Police Chief (Kochi City) decided to hand over the probe to the Crime Branch based on the complaint filed by Sandeep Warrier, State secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, before District Collector S. Suhas. Biji George, DySP, Crime Branch will be in charge of the probe.
The issue had snowballed into a controversy after Mr. Warrier posted an RTI document on February 6 that stated that the organisers of the music event had not remitted the proceeds from the event towards the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.
‘Karuna’ was held on November 1. A letter sent by the KMF to the secretary of the Regional Sports Centre to provide the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Kadavantra here as the venue for the event had showed that it was being organised as part of raising funds for the relief fund. The stadium was given free of cost for the event as it was meant for raising funds for the flood victims. The KMF had handed over a cheque for ₹6.22 lakh on February 14 after the issue hit the headlines.
Members of the KMF on Tuesday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking an official investigation into the allegations of financial irregularities in the conduct of the fest. The KMF could not raise the money to cover the expenses through ticket sales and without a sponsor for the event. The allegations against the members came from certain quarters after they participated in the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act, they said.
