(Representational Image) (Representational Image)

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Uttar Pradesh Police had, on Saturday, booked a former representative of the Zakir Husain Memorial Trust and others for alleged fraud. Pratyush Shukla was booked for forging signatures of two district officers to verify that a camp for the differently-abled had been held on May 29, 2010 using funds sanctioned by the UPA II government to the Trust. At the time, Louise Khurshid, whose husband Congress’s Salman Khurshid was then a union minister, headed the Trust.

The UPA II government had, in 2011, ordered the state government to probe a report submitted by the Trust on the camp. The EOW was then charged with the probe. The FIR says the EOW found that the Centre had given the Trust a Rs 71.50 lakh grant on March 30, 2010 of which Rs 4 lakh was marked for distribution of equipment to the differently-abled through a camp in Farrukhabad. The ministry had also directed that the money be utilised within three months and a utilisation certificate, verified by district-level officers, be sent to the central government.

The report says that the Trust sent a test check report to central government on June 3, 2010 mentioning 32 beneficiaries and the distribution camp in Kayamganj on May 29, 2010. This report showed the signature of Tehsildar, Kayamganj, as the one who verified it and countersigned by Farrukhabad chief medical officer.

“No evidence has been found that the camp was organised in Kayamganj, Farrukhabad, on May 29, 2010,” the report says. It adds that Shukla prepared the forged document with the help of “others”. They have been booked under relevant sections of IPC at Kayamganj police station of Farrukhabad Saturday on the complaint of inspector Ram Shankar Yadav of the EOW, according to SHO Bhuvnesh Kumar. Contacted, Louise Khurshid said, “The FIR has been registered against Mr Shukla. He is no longer with the Trust.”

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