New Delhi, April 14: A self-styled anti-corruption activist on Wednesday announced his intention to sit on fast if social activist Anna Hazare, who led the campaign for Lokpal Bill, was not removed from the joint committee set up to draft the legislation.
Hemant Patil, who also hails from Maharashtra, also dished out skeletons from Hazare’s cupboards claiming his objection to the latter being in the committee was precisely because he has been indicted by a commission of inquiry for corrupt practices and misadministration in trust run by him.
“As many as 11 criminal cases are pending against Hazare in Maharashtra. The Justice P B Sawant Commission of Inquiry has held him guilty of corrupt practices and acts of maladministration in trust owned and run by him. How can he be in a committee on anti-corruption bill? I will sit on fast at Jantar Mantar if he is not removed from the panel,” Patil told reporters here on Wednesday.
Quoting from the inquiry report, Patil said, “The expenditure on Rs 2.20 lakh from the funds of the Hind Swaraj Trust (of Hazare) for his birthday celebrations was clearly illegal and amounted to corrupt practice.” Patil, the head of a lesser know outfit called National Anticorruption Public Power, though, himself has been in jail on charges of forgery and other cognisable offenses.
——–Agencies