The Vidhana Soudha police have registered an FIR against the chairman, vice-chairman, and others of the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) for alleged misappropriation of official funds worth several lakhs of rupees.
The FIR was registered on April 17 based on a complaint filed by Basavaraj S., member of KSBC and a senior advocate.
KSBC’s chairman Vishalaraghu H.L., vice-chairman Vinay B. Mangalekar, manager Puttegowda, and others have been named as accused, and IPC provisions for misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, falsification of accounts, and criminal conspiracy have been invoked against them.
According to the complaint, the KSBC had organised a State advocates’ convention in August last year at Mysuru and ₹3.3 crore was collected for the convention from different sources, including ₹1.16 crore collected as donations from advocates and others, ₹1 crore as contribution from the State government, and ₹75 lakh from KSBC’s own funds.
The accused showed that ₹3.12 crore was spent on the convention, by using forged documents and falsified accounts, and misappropriated the fund collected for their personal use, it was alleged in the complaint.
It was stated that the first information to the police was given after KSBC failed to act on the complaint given to it by the complainant. The police have sought more details of the allegations for further investigation.
