HRD ministry sets up panel to probe misappropriation charge against Teesta NGO

New Delhi: The HRD Ministry has set up a committee to probe alleged misappropriation of funds received under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan by an NGO run by activist Teesta Setalvad, who is facing heat along with her husband in a separate case of embezzlement.

The three-member committee is to be headed by Supreme Court lawyer Abhijit Bhattacharjee and comprise Gujarat Central University Vice Chancellor SA Bari and senior HR Ministry official Gaya Prasad as its members.

The panel will look into allegations against the NGO Sabrang Trust based on a complaint received by the ministry about "mis-utilisation" of funds by it, officials in the HRD Ministry said, confirming the setting up of the committee. The two members of the committee, however, said they were yet to receive any communication in this regard.

Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand are also involved in the Gulbarg society embezzlement case. Supreme Court recently directed Gujarat Police not to arrest the duo in the case while asking them to cooperate in the probe. The case pertains to funds for a museum in Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society, which was devastated in the 2002 riots.

Meanwhile, sources in the ministry said that Setalvad could also be dropped from the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which is being reconstituted after NDA government came to power. CABE is the highest decision-making body on education in the country.