New Delhi: Kiran Bedi on Tuesday found herself in

fresh trouble as one of the founder members of her NGO who was

managing her travels quit the group washing his hands off the

controversy over inflating travel bills.

With attacks against Team Anna mounting, the Core

Committee will meet on Saturday during which the members are

expected to work out its strategy following controversies on

Prashant Bhushan`s remarks on Kashmir and alleged financial

misconduct of Arvind Kejriwal and Bedi.

The attendance of Hazare, who is on a `vow of silence`

now, in the crucial meeting is not confirmed with Team Anna

sources saying that he will attend only of he breaks his `maun

vrat`.

Though Kejriwal defended Bedi and questioned the

intentions of the government in passing the Lokpal bill,

Congress dismissed Hazare`s charges that those in the

government are behind the campaign against his team and

expressed hurt at the use of phrase "gang of four" in the

government by the Gandhian.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid, however, said there should

be no encouragement for discord between civil society and

government.

Trouble escalated for Bedi as Anil Bal, proprietor of

Flywell Travel and a trustee of India Vision Foundation run by

Bedi, quit the NGO alleging that her defence on overcharging

her hosts has conveyed a "wrong impression" that he was

responsible for inflated invoices after issuing cheaper

tickets.

Bedi is under fire for overcharging hosts by inflating

her travel bills by charging business class fares while going

by economy class. She defended herself saying she did not

personally benefit and that the money thus saved went to the

foundation.

Bal said in a statement that he found it "bizarre" the

resolution passed by trustees of the NGO that the travel agent

should refund the excess amount collected to Bedi`s hosts as

he has nothing to do with them.

Bal said his firm has no interaction with any of the

organisations for whom Bedi undertakes the travel and no

knowledge of the understanding they have with the Foundation.

"In view of what has happened which unnecessarily

tarnished my reputation I have decided to resign as trustee of

IVF with immediate effect and have also requested IVF to

engage another travel agent for their travel needs.

"Amount to the credit of IVF as on date in our records is

being refunded to IVF by crossed cheque to close the account

with us," he said in a statement here.

"Credit balance in the IVF account with us belongs to IVF

and can only be refunded to IVF and cannot be refunded to any

third party as we do not have transactions with these

parties," he said.

Bedi said that Bal`s statement itself showed that she

had not done anything wrong. "Wish he had said this a few days

ago. May be he could not do this then as he was out of the

country," she said.

He also claimed that the accounts of the travel agency

were audited on regular basis and that they have filed returns

with Income Tax and Service Tax authorities. "As of date there

is no demand from any of these authorities," he claimed.

Defending Bedi, Kejriwal dared the government to conduct

a probe against him and other Team Anna members even as he

questioned the motive behind the "smear campaign".

Kejriwal said, "If someone paid the ticket examiner in

Railway because he needed a ticket, so that person cannot

question Suresh Kalmadi? Is this the message being given out?

"Do you mean to say that out of 120 crore people, only

saints can question UPA`s corruption and government will keep

on robbing people? If anybody questions then that person will

be asked to look into his case first," he said and warned that

if the current smear campaign continues, the next movement

will be 10 times bigger.

PTIPTI