Kochi: The High Court on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to constitute a special investigation team to probe allegations of misappropriation of funds by United Nurses Association (UNA) president Jasmin Sha and other office-bearers and to complete the investigation in a time-bound manner.
The court issued the order on a petition by filed by Mr. Sha seeking to quash the FIR launched against him and other office-bearers based on a complaint filed by Siby Mukesh, a former vice-president of the association. The complainant has earlier submitted a petition to the Director General of Police stating that Mr Sha and associates siphoned off Rs 3.40 crore of the UNA funds. The association came to prominence with a series of struggles launched by it for increasing salary and improving working conditions of nursing staff in private hospitals in the state.
The counsel for Mr. Sha and his associates submitted that the allegations were fabricated and without any basis and politically motivated. The counsel has also submitted that the probe launched since March this year was not able to unearth any evidence and a preliminary investigation by the crime branch probe team has not found any evidence of corruption as alleged by the complainant.
The court then observed that there was no point in prolonging the case and directed the Crime Branch ADGP to depute a special team and complete the investigation in a time-bound manner.
