PUNE: Tensions between the Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) and parent Servants of India Society (SIS) have flared again with both trading allegations over control of a key bank account.The feud comes against the backdrop of an FIR filed on GIPE’s complaint in April accusing SIS’s former secretary Milind Deshmukh of misappropriating Rs 1.4 crore.At a news conference Thursday, GIPE’s officiating deputy registrar Vishal Gaikwad accused SIS of wrongdoing, including freezing its account. SIS president Damodar Sahoo countered the charges.“We came to know 3-4 days ago Sahoo wrote to the bank to freeze the account from which staff salaries are disbursed. But we met the bank’s officials and made it operational,” Gaikwad said.Sahoo, on the other hand, insisted that it was a joint account with two signatories, SIS and GIPE. However, GIPE had removed SIS’s signatory without any prior notification, Sahoo claimed. “We wrote to the bank to freeze the account to know what happened. This has been a joint account since inception. There have always been two signatories and one cannot be randomly deleted,” Sahoo said.On the earlier funds-related FIR against Deshmukh, Gaikwad said he had written to police asking them to add Sahoo’s name to the case. Sahoo said he has no information about GIPE’s letter, nor have police contacted him.In view of their allegations against SIS of misusing GIPE funds, Gaikwad said the institute wrote to the charity commissioner requesting suspension of SIS leadership and appointment of an administrator. Sahoo contended that GIPE has no right to make such a demand since SIS is its parent body.A few months ago, SIS had accused interim VC Shankar Das of allegedly bypassing procedures in faculty and staff recruitment at GIPE, which escalated to SIS removing Sanjeev Sanyal as chancellor and appointing an interim chancellor.Sanyal hit back, alleging lack of transparency in financial transactions of SIS. He announced that a panel led by JNU vice-chancellor Santishree Pandit would inquire into the allegations against Das, after which Sahoo called it all a misunderstanding and Sanyal was reinstated. Pandit’s committee later gave a clean chit to Das.
