Kerala: Vigilance to probe Advocates Welfare Fund fraud
The audit of the financials of the fund by a chartered account has found serious lapses.
Kochi: The state government has approved a probe by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) into the alleged Rs 70-lakh Advocates Welfare Fund fraud. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan gave the green signal for the vigilance probe on the recommendation of the advocate general, C.P. Sudhakara Prasad, who heads the Advocates Welfare Fund Trusty Committee. Law secretary B.G. Harindranath told DC on Tuesday that he had referred it to the home secretary and his department would issue the necessary orders.
The audit of the financials of the fund by a chartered account has found serious lapses. A meeting of the Trusty Committee held on September 2 has decided to recommend a vigilance probe. The committee has also placed M. K. Chandran, handling the account of the Welfare Fund, under suspension. The vigilance probe is expected to bring out further details including the involvement other persons in responsible positions in the fraud. The corpus used mainly for providing relief to the lawyers and their families in distress has almost depleted. The total misappropriation will be over '1 crore, sources said.