HC for report on Gandhi samadhi irregularities

The Delhi High Court sought an explanation from the management committee on alleged irregularities at the mausoleum.

Even as the nation gears up to celebrate this year's Gandhi Jayanti, the Mahatma's samadhi at Rajghat is embroiled in a controversy as the Delhi High Court sought an explanation from the management committee on alleged irregularities at the mausoleum.

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A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kailash Gambhir asked Rajghat Samithi secretary Rajnish Kumar to file a personal affidavit on the charges within four weeks and posted the matter for further hearing to December 8.

The court sought the explanation on a petition filed by a group of Rajghat employees who accused Kumar of illegally holding the dual posts of secretary and caretaker of the mausoleum and indulging in large-scale irregularities.

The petitioners said 144 of the 186 boards with names of trees planted around the samadhi by visiting dignitaries in the past had been found missing or damaged, resulting in loss of Rs 3.31 lakh.

They also alleged that the foreign visitors at the samadhi were overcharged at the shoe-deposit counter.

The petition quoted an official circular, wherein the secretary had sought replacement of a board that went missing from a tree planted by a Ukranian VVIP.