New Delhi, Oct 23 : Questioning the use of funds donated by the public to Team Anna, activist Swami Agnivesh today claimed that money was deposited in the trust run by Arvind Kejriwal from which the names of major team members were missing.
Agnivesh, who had yesterday alleged that Kejriwal has siphoned off over Rs 80 lakh donated by people for Anna Hazare's agitation by diverting it to a trust run by him, said Anna Hazare does not have his name in the Public Cause Research Foundation run by Kejriwal. “Even Justice Santosh Hegde, who has a clean image does not have his name in the trust. So, the main members of the team were not part of the Trust and the old trust where Kejriwal and his members were part...the money was deposited in their name,” he alleged.
Agnivesh said Anna was keen to have new trust and include new members.
He said Hazare himself had asked Kejriwal to put on the website the details of donations received by them in the core committee meeting. Hazare had announced that he had asked his associates to conduct a mini-audit and put the statement on website.
Anna wanted to complete the deposits and calculations by October 15 and upload the information on the website, Agnivesh said.
Maintaining that his protest in only for transparency, he said, “I have said this (to give details of accounts) because if they will do it as soon as possible, there won't be any doubt and question. If they will delay, people would question why the accounts are not given”.
"I am not blaming Kejriwal that he is deliberately doing so and does not want transparency. I am also not saying there is some fraud and corruption in accounts," Angivesh said,insisting that his protest is only for transparency.
"India Against Corruption campaign is about transparency.When we are fighting against corruption, then transparency is main and important part of it, accountability is second part of it," he said.
"In the middle there were questions raised on Indian Vision Foundation and on Kiran Bedi's flight fare controversy and all then it has become more important to check the accounts of old trusts," he said.
Angivesh had yesterday alleged that "All the donations which were made for the India Against Corruption (IAC) were diverted to Public Cause Research Foundation run by Kejriwal,"He had also alleged that Kejriwal was delaying the opening of a bank account in the name of IAC.Agnivesh was ousted from Team Anna following the
surfacing of a video clip during the August agitation ofHazare in which he was purportedly shown asking a person,suspected by Team Anna to a Union minister, to deal strongly with the crusader.
"Lakhs and lakhs of rupees have come. Where have they gone," Agnivesh had asked.On being questioned how he arrived at this figure of over Rs 80 lakh, he had said one of the organisers had announced in Ramlila Maidan that they had already received Rs 50 lakh and urged no more donations. "Even after this, they received donations," he alleged. PTI
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