Bangalore: A day after CNN-IBN showed how the money collected by the Karnataka unit of the Congress party was misused; the party has constituted an inquiry committee.
The committee, which would look into the allegations of misuse of donations, will be headed by retired judge N Y Hanumanthappa.
However, the man at the centre of the entire controversy, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president R V Deshpande, has rejected the allegations. He has nevertheless accepted that there has been a misapplication of funds.
Deshpande says that he would be sending a report to the party high command on the issue.
"We will probe and punish the guilty. It is a conspiracy to defame me and my party," said Deshpande.
But going might get difficult for the KPCC president as members of his own party are now demanding his resignation.
The scam has surfaced 8 months after Karnataka was hit by floods that killed over 1,000 people. During that time, the state unit of the Congress party had collected money from the public to provide flood relief.
One of the main allegations levied against the state leadership is that it used the funds to finance office expenses, advertisements and even to purchase air tickets for party functionaries.
KPCC flood relief fund bank statements and a balance sheet leaked to media expose the scam.
The KPCC reportedly collected Rs 2.3 crore from the public and deposited it at Canara Bank. However, only Rs 1.1 crore was spent on flood relief.
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