Barwani (Madhya Pradesh): An FIR was lodged against the founder of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Medha Patkar and ten others for allegedly embezzling the amount received through the Narmada Navnirman Abhiyan Trust. The FIR was lodged by Pritam Badole, a Temla village resident in the Barwani district. Ashish Mandloi, among those named in the FIR, died twelve years ago.
The movement leader, Medha Patkar has denied the allegations, saying all of the transactions made by the Trust are audited annually. "No information or notice has been received from the police yet. Our money is audited every year and we have answered this many times before," she said.
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"We are ready to respond further. The complainant must have done this under the influence of someone. Whoever has done all this will also face legal action." said the leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Social activist Medha Patkar and eleven others were booked under multiple sections. The complaint was lodged at the Kotwali police station.
The complainant alleges that the Narmada Navnirman Abhiyan, which is run by Medha Patkar, embezzled crores of rupees in the past fourteen years. Badole claims that instead of using the money to educate tribal children, Patkar used the amount towards anti-national activities.
FIR registered against Activist Medha Patkar, 10 others for embezzlement He claims that the Trust received more than Rs 13 crores in the past 14 years but the source of this income and its expenditure have not been disclosed by it. He alleges that more than Rs 1.5 crores were withdrawn from the bank but the audit and account details of these withdrawals are not clear.
More than Rs 4 crores were withdrawn from nearly ten accounts under the name of the Narmada Navnirman Trust. The donations collected by the Trust were diverted to organise protests against development projects. Medha Patkar's saving accounts were credited with more than Rs 19 lakhs, while she had claimed that her yearly income was just Rs 6000.
According to the complaint, more than Rs 13.5 crores was deposited in multiple accounts over the last fourteen years. While the police have lodged an FIR against Patkar, they have refused to answer the media's questions. No official from the police force is willing to give any comments as they appear to be evasive.
Although the police have lodged an FIR against the Narmada Navnirman Abhiyan Trust, it is still unclear how Ashish Mandloi, a man who has been dead since 2010, was able to operate his bank accounts. This has raised many questions such as, how did the Trust arrive at the decision to make a dead person its Trustee and how the police lodged a complaint without any preliminary investigations.
