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Arrest warrant against Salman Khurshid's wife in misappropriation of funds case
The case relates to allegations of misappropriation of grants meant for the physically handicapped by a trust chaired by Salman Khurshid and his wife.
An MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly has issued an arrest warrant against Louise Khurshid, wife of senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid in a case involving alleged misuse of government funds, PTI reported on Thursday.
The arrest warrant was issued by additional chief judicial magistrate Shambhavi on Wednesday against two persons, including Louise Khurshid. The court has fixed February 16 as the next date of hearing.
Special Public Prosecutor Achintya Dwivedi told PTI that the case relates to allegations of misappropriation of grants meant for the distribution of artificial limbs and equipment by a trust chaired by Khurshid and his wife Louise Khurshid in 2009-'10.
The Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, which is in the name of Khurshid’s grandfather and India’s third president and is registered in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad district, is accused of misusing government grants worth ₹71 lakhs.
The alleged misuse surfaced during a sting operation carried out by a television news channel in 2012. The channel claimed the NGO forged the signatures of government officials to attest that the funds were being used as intended.
Dwivedi on Thursday said that the government got the matter investigated after receiving allegations of discrepancies.
It was found that government funds were misused by using fake seals and signatures in the programme, he said, according to PTI. Following this, a case was registered at the Bhojipura police station in 2017.
The first information report named Louise Khurshid and the organisation's secretary Mohammad Athar Farooqui. The police had filed the charge sheet against both the accused in the court.
The court issued summons several times thereafter, but the accused neither appeared nor got bail in the case, according to the news agency.
