Kolkata: In what can be described as a shocking and unexpected incident, the secretary of the Sourav Ganguly Foundation, Anirban Sen Chowdhury was allegedly involved in the misappropriation of funds of the foundation. This issue first came to light some days back and Kinjal Basu Roy Chowdhury lodged an FIR with the Thakurpukur Police Station on the April 26, according to a report in Kolkata based portal www.XtraTime.com.
The police said, “We have received a complaint and a probe is on. According to the complaint, money was taken from three schools in the name of the foundation but was deposited in a personal account,” Behla DC said Meraj Khalid, the DC of Behala
He also added, “Anirban, booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 408 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC, is yet to be arrested.”
According to the report, Anirban has been collecting money from various schools using Sourav Ganguly’s name. Taniya Bhattacharya, who is associated with Sourav’s foundation said, “This man (Anirban Sen Chowdhury) or his activities are in no way supported or backed by Mr Sourav Ganguly and he is in no way related to him professional or personally. It is thereby requested to all the schools to be aware of this man and not to trust him without doing proper background checks on him.”
Anirban, who has been accused of misappropriating the funds spoke up on this issue and said that he would meet the former Indian skipper on the 12th of this month. He said, “I do not have any intentions to cheat Mr Ganguly. I have already returned an amount of INR 80000.There is some misunderstanding between me and Mr Ganguly. I had a chat with him today as well and he has asked me to come and meet him at his residence on July 12.”
The Sourav Ganguly Foundation was launched on the 14th of December in 2016 in the presence of Sourav and his family.
The foundation isn’t even a year old and such incidents are already blemishing it’s name.
(With inputs from Xtratime)