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High court serves notices on Sonia, Priyanka, Amitabh

The Delhi high court today issued show cause notices to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and its functionaries including chairperson Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Vadra, former President Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma and film star Amitabh Bachchan on a suit seeking an inquiry into the trust's affairs.

Among the other trustees issued notices are Rahul Gandhi, Sunil Nehru, Suman Dubey and N K Seshan.

Justice S K Mahajan directed the nine respondents to file their replies by October 6, the next hearing.

The suit, filed by senior advocate Pran Nath Lekhi and advocate Ravinder Kumar, urged the court to examine the deeds of the trust and remove the Congress president from her position as the RGF chairperson.

The advocates alleged that the trust's funds had not been utilised for the objectives for which the trust had been set up.

According to the RGF balance sheets for the years 1992-93 and 1996-97, only three per cent of the fund had been used for social welfare measures and research, they alleged.

The RGF only indulged in paper publicity without fulfilling its obligations, the suit alleged adding that the corpus of the trust had grown from an initial Rs 500 in June 1991 to Rs 410 million in 1997.

Though several social welfare projects have been mentioned in the annual report for 1996-97, there were in fact, no such projects worth the name, it was alleged. Rather, their inclusion in the report was an exercise in paper publicity, they alleged.

The suit said the Foundation had received regular financial assistance running into million of rupees from various governments and their departments, but the RGF had nowhere acknowledged receipt of the money except in a very guarded way in the auditor's report. Majority of the projects rest on the crutches provided by others, it said.

The suit further alleged that a perusal of the RGF annual reports revealed that the major expenditure incurred by it was not towards discharging the obligations of the trust but to fulfil the personal and private agenda of Sonia Gandhi and her family.

The advocates stated that by tying its money in investments, the trust was functioning as a business or private commercial enterprise far removed from the charities which were its objectives.

The investments made by the Foundation in scheduled banks and public sector units alone were over Rs 300 million which was a open fraud on the trust act, they added.

Attacking the portion of the trust deed which provides for a permanent chairperson, the suit alleged that the para should be struck out as it was arbitrary, unreasonable and unconnected with the aims and objects of the trust and against public policy and public interest.

It further alleged that Sonia was also keen to lead a luxurious life at public expense and hence she had been made a 'non-removable' chairperson of RGF.

About Dr Sharma, the suit alleged that he owes his political fortunes and rise to Sonia's mother-in-law, then prime minister Indira Gandhi whom he served faithfully during the critical years of 1969-70 when the Congress split.

UNI

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