nA new controversy has erupted in Tamil Nadu over the management of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) Trust formed in 1958 by the then Chief Minister K Kamaraj.
S Gurumurthy, editor, Tughlaq and a leading chartered accountant-cum-corporate lawyer, in a series of messages in his social media platform disclosed that the AICC high command has literally hijacked the TNCC Trust’s immovable properties in Chennai worth Rs 20,000 crore. “National Herald Scam II brewing. Kanishk Singh, Rahul Gandhi’s right hand has taken over the Trust documents and accounts. None of the Trustees seem to be aware of the accounts,” Gurumurtthy said in his Tweet on Friday. He further charged that a private company has taken out TNCC Trust land worth more than Rs 20,000 crore and efforts were on to construct a multi-storey building in the Trust land.
“The TNCC has become like the National Herald: Has only properties; not the party,” he said in an obvious reference to the National Herald case in which the AICC president Sonia Gandhi, former president Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vohra, the former AICC treasurer and two others have been listed as accused.
The Tweet further read: “Motilal Vohra who can’t read a number (because of his advanced age) is a Trustee and Kanishk Singh controls the TNCC Trust. The scam is 10 times the National Herald fraud. And he (Vohra) is the chosen man for National Herald also,” Gurumurthy tweeted.
He quoted G K Vasan, former Trustee as telling him that the latter quit the party six years ago and was in the dark about the goings on in the TNCC Trust. “Sonia seems to have appointed new Trustees to carry out the National Herald II type of operation. Matter getting worse,” said Gurumurthy.
Guruurthy also said that all Trustees were summoned by Rahul Gandhi in 2009 and instructed them to sign some documents. Trustees are appointed from the executive committee of the TNCC. This means that Vasan too have signed the documents because he left the Congress only in 2014 to revive the Tamil Manila Congress.
The Congress has been pushed to a tight corner by Gurumurthy who chaklened the present Trustees Sudharshan Nachiappan, C R Kesavan and Chakaravarthy to answer why Sonia Gandhi has appointed persons who are not members of the TNCC executive committee as Trustees.
But K S Alagiri , the TNCC president tweeted on Saturday that TNCC Trust was run by nationalists and veteran Congressmen. “Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have no role in the Trust,” said Alagiri. But the TNCC chief had to face another series of tweets from Gurumurthy.
The auditor-turned-lawyer-turned editor pointed out that the TNCC Trust Deed specifies that only executive committee members from the TNCC be made the Trustees. “It is not even AICC. It is Sonia Gandhi who appointed Vora and Keshavan as Trustees. Why then she appointed them as Trustees and on what authority she made these appointments?” asked Gurumurthy. He quoted newspapers reports which stated that the then TNCC president EVKS Elangovan made the announcements regarding the appointments made by Sonia Gandhi.
Though the TNCC fielded former president S Thirunavakarassar to take on Gurumurthy, all that the former could tell was that Rahul Gandhi and Kanishk Singh do not have any control over the Trust and Motilal Vohra was appointed as Trustee by the TNCC.
This is the first time Gurumurthy has come out in the open challenging the TNCC and the latter is seen squirming to find out a convincing reply.