‘Misappropriation’ of funds meant for disabled: 5 years after it filed case, CBI gets Chhattisgarh HC nod to proceed

On Tuesday, asking the CBI to resume its investigation, the High Court’s two-judge Bench of Justices Parth Sahu and Sanjay Jaiswal said in an order, “…There is prima facie material available in record before this Court indicating that huge money, if not thousand crores, is involved causing loss to the State exchequer and the State Government has not taken any concrete steps in this regard.”

The allegations

In 2018, a Writ petition on the matter was filed before the High Court by one Kundan Singh Thakur, but seeing the nature of the allegations, the court turned it into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The alleged corruption dates back to 2014, when a self-governing institute, the SRC, was formed and registered by the Chhattisgarh government to provide technical support for the rehabilitation of persons with disability.

In 2012, a Physical Referral Rehabilitation Centre (PRRC) was established, under the United Nations Convention for the Rehabilitation of Persons with Disability, with the objective of extending benefits to physically disabled persons by providing them with artificial limbs and other related items. The SRC provided funds to the PRCC for payment to employees and also for running the establishment, for its functioning and for the purchase of equipment.

The petitioner alleged that SRC funds running into crores of rupees were siphoned off and that the PRRC was operational only on paper. He also alleged that he was shown as an employee of PRRC, when he never applied for the job and never got the salary that had been withdrawn in his name. He further alleged that SRC funds were never audited, and that he faced threats when he tried collecting information on the issue under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In January 2020, the High Court directed the CBI to register an FIR and investigate the matter, but the Supreme Court, in October 2021, set aside the High Court and sent the matter back to the court for reconsideration.

In 2019, the government dissolved the SRC and its assets were transferred to the State Resource and Rehabilitation Centre.

The CBI has not yet revealed the names of those accused in its FIR.

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