'Secretary's man tried to steal documents'

Allegation comes at a time when association's elections are looming large; secretary has denied charge, says these are ploys to malign him

Allegation comes at a time when association's elections are looming large; secretary has denied charge, says these are ploys to malign him

The secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), whose administration is under scrutiny for alleged financial irregularities, received another jolt last night whenu00a0 the association's staff alleged that someone from his academy tried to steal documents from the office. The association's elections are scheduled for November 21 and the secretary, Brijesh Patel, is up for re-election.

NABBED: The 28-year-old was allegedly trying to enter the office under suspicious circumstances. Pic/Manjunath L Hanji

Association staff saw a 28-year-old man entering the KSCA office under suspicious circumstances and alleged that he was there to steal some documents. The man, who refused to give his name, however, refuted the allegation and said he had gone to give some documents to the association's CEO MP Ganesh, who refused to comment.u00a0u00a0

The staff handed over the man to KSCA President Srikantadatta Narasimharaj Wadiyar, who said the issue would be discussed in the next meeting after thorough investigation. When MiD DAY spoke to the man around 11 pm, he confirmed that he was from Patel's academy but maintained that he was there merely to hand over some documents and that the allegations were baseless.

Irregularities
The Registrar of Societies passed an order in October initiating an inquiry into certain transactions which had taken place between 1999 and 2007 between the KSCA and concerns owned and controlled by Patel, who has been the secretary since 1997, and SK Ramadhayani, the then Vice-President of KSCA.

A committee was subsequently set up to probe the financial transactions during the said period following a directive from a division bench of the Karnataka High Court. "After the Registrar of Societies initiated an inquiry, I had presented myself to the Registrar and told them that I took charge as the president on September 9, 2007 and all these transactions had happened before that," said Wadiyar.

The other side

"The inquiry officer of the Registrar of Societies had asked for some documents and we provided them. This is the election year and all this is being done to malign me," said Brijesh Patel.