FIR against Union minister Ananth Kumar’s wife

An FIR registered against Union minister Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejaswini Ananthkumar surfaced on Thursday, in which she is accused of misappropriating funds meant for an educational institution in Karnataka.

An FIR registered against Union minister Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejaswini Ananthkumar surfaced on Thursday, in which she is accused of misappropriating funds meant for an educational institution in Karnataka.

The complainant, Mallana Jiglur, filed an FIR on July 19, accusing Tejaswini of siphoning off `24 crore from the Bagalkot-based Basaveshwar Vidya Varthak Sangh (BVVS).

Jiglur, a former trustee of BVSS, said the Union minister’s wife used the money to purchase Amruta Institute of Technology, an engineering college in Bengaluru. Tejaswini denied the allegations, calling them “politically motivated”.

“We were taking care of Amruta Institute for four years,” she said.

“We had taken loans to run the institute. Then I had no time, so we requested BVVS who was looking to start a college in Bengaluru to take care of it. When we handed over the college to them we had loans of Rs. 24 crore and total assets of Rs. 30 crore. All we have done is to transfer the loan to BVVS. Only signatories have changed.”

Tejaswini’s husband and Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers Ananth Kumar said he was surprised with the charges.

“My brother-in-law started this engineering college after his daughter passed away,” he said. “It was handed over to this institute, which runs many colleges. I am really surprised. The entire engineering college with its assets and liabilities has been handed over to this public trust,” Ananth Kumar added.