Mangalore, November 25: The People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and host of NGOs from Dakshina Kannada have condemned move by Catholic Association of South Kanara (CASK) to remove M F Saldanha, former HC judge from its governing council.
PUCL called the move of the association as illegal, vicious, mala fide, motivated and vindictive. "Justice Saldanha is regarded as one of the highly respected members of the Indian judiciary," PUCL noted.
Justice Saldanha had pulled up the office-bearers and members of the association on different grounds, the first being that the association had used the underworld and the mafia to threaten him during the previous election. He had also taken the association members to task for holding a reunion party at the Mangalore Club in which a truck load of liquor smuggled in from Goa was used to treat guests. Other charges of the justice Saldanha include, the association accepting a bribe of Rs 1 crore, and keeping money ( $ 1,19,00) collected for the century fund in a personal bank account outside the country.
It is also said that the association's annual accounts dated 4-6-2011 was published in a blank form without being signed by the president, secretary or treasurer. It was rubber-stamped on the same day by the auditor - Rudolf Rodrigues. In a reply to these charges, the association issued three circulars on June 1, 6 and 9 this year admitting the transactions and also tried to defend them.
Several months later, when the government authorities started investigating these transactions, the president, for the first time disputed the circulars and his signature. Saldanha had placed the material before the deputy registrar of cooperative societies calling upon him to hold an investigation. However, there has not been any order on the issue for thepast five months.
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