The Uttar Pradesh court has issued a non-bailable warrant against Louise Khurshid, wife of former Union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid, for allegedly misappropriating central grants of over Rs.71 lakh.
According to the reports, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Farukkhabad Praveen Kumar Tyagi has issued a non-bailable warrant against Louise Khurshid and another accused Athar Farooqui of committing financial irregularities in Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust.
In March 2010, the Trust, headed by Louise Khurshid, had received a grant of Rs.71 lakh from the Congress-led UPA government to distribute wheelchairs, tricycles and hearing aids among physically challenged persons in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Athar Farooqui is the secretary of Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust.
However, an allegation of corruption and forgery surfaced against the office-bearers of the trust in 2012 when Salman Khurshid was a cabinet minister in the then UPA government. The Khurshid duo had rejected all the allegations.
In 2017, the Economic Offences Wing initiated an investigation, and an FIR was registered against Louise Khurshid and Athar Farooqui in the Kayamganj police station in Farukkhabad.
Trust faked signatures and seals to obtain grants, alleges charge sheet
The charge sheet in the case was filed on December 30, 2019. In the charge sheet, it was alleged that the accused had forged the signatures and seals of senior officials of Uttar Pradesh to receive grants from the Union government for the welfare of the disabled.
The trust had claimed that it had organised camps for differently-abled children across over a dozen districts – Etah, Etawah, Farrukhabad, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Meerut, Bareilly, Moradabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Rampur, Sant Kabir Nagar and Allahabad to distribute equipment for the disabled persons.
It was claimed that the equipment was distributed among disabled children under the leadership of Louise Khurshid in May 2010. Later, it was revealed that no such camps were held, rather the camps for the disabled existed only on paper.