GIPE seeks appointment of administrator at parent body SIS accuses Sahoo of mismanagement

Pune, Jun 12 (PTI) The dispute between the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) and its parent body, the Servants of India Society, took a new turn on Thursday with the former seeking appointment of an administrator at SIS.
The SIS, founded by freedom fighter Gopal Krishna Gokhale, runs the prestigious Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
GIPE has been in the news recently over the dramatic developments connected to the chancellor's post as well as the arrest of a functionary for alleged misappropriation of funds.
In April, Milind Deshmukh, then secretary was arrested by Pune police after Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics' assistant registrar filed a case of alleged diversion of Rs 1.42 crore in connection with a land deal in Nagpur.
Alleging that SIS president Damodar Sahoo, Deshmukh and other members were mismanaging the affairs of the trust, Vishal Gaikwad, the GIPE's officiating joint registrar, said, "SIS has not given a single rupee in 25 years to GIPE. Instead they have taken money repeatedly from the institute for personal uses."
The UGC has written to GIPE asking that no money be sent to SIS and also asked for details of the past payments, he claimed.
Sahoo had got banks to freeze GIPE's accounts but these were restored after necessary documents were submitted, Gaikwad further claimed.
Sahoo, Deshmukh and P K Dwivedi admitted their sons into the trust through illegal meetings, he alleged.
"In view of these developments, we want an administrator to be appointed at SIS. We want Sahoo to be named as an accused in the ongoing case in which Deshmukh was arrested," said Gaikwad.
Refuting all the allegations, Sahoo said he has written to GIPE chancellor Sanjeev Sanyal urging him to intervene and help resolve the ongoing dispute.
Sahoo said they had written to the banks as GIPE had unilaterally discontinued the longstanding practice of operating a joint bank account.
"The Servants of India Society was not informed about the change, prompting it to write to the bank to freeze the accounts," said Sahoo.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)