Embezzlement at Gandhi Smarak Bhawan: Scribe among 2 more held

The duo arrested for colluding with in-charge of Gandhi Smarak Bhawan for embezzling the centre’s sponsorship funds was identified as Bhupinder Sharma, 51, of Sector 43, Chandigarh, and Naresh Sharma, 49, of Sector 123, Mohali

Police have arrested two more persons who colluded with the in-charge of Gandhi Smarak Bhawan in Sector 16 for embezzling the centre’s sponsorship funds and illegally running parallel trusts.

FIR was lodged against a total of 15 accused on complaint of Anand Kumar Sharan, secretary of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. (iStock)

The arrested duo was identified as Bhupinder Sharma, 51, of Sector 43, Chandigarh, and Naresh Sharma, 49, of Sector 123, Mohali. Police said while Bhupinder was an editor at a local newspaper, Naresh was a yoga instructor.

The key accused in the case, Dev Raj Tyagi, the in-charge of Gandhi Smarak Bhawan, was the first to be arrested on January 13, 2023, a day after a cheating case was registered at the Sector-17 police station.

The FIR was lodged against a total of 15 accused, including Tyagi’s kin, on the complaint of Anand Kumar Sharan, secretary of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

As per the complaint, Tyagi had redirected funds received on Gandhi Jayanti last year into the account of an unauthorised trust with a similar name – Gandhi Samarak Nidhi, also registered at the address of the Sector-16 bhawan, with all co-accused as trustees.

Following a fact-finding inquiry last year, Tyagi’s contractual services were terminated on October 16. Six other employees at the bhawan were also issued show-cause notices on October 26.

In connivance with the other accused, Tyagi had also got registered many other firms/societies at the bhawan’s address and were illegally running them from the premises by projecting themselves as owners of the property, the complainant had alleged.

Following verification of documents from the Chandigarh DC’s office, police had found that Tyagi made a parallel trust through forged documents with the help of self-styled trustees without the knowledge/approval of the trust’s main branch in New Delhi.