BENGALURU: A City Civil and Sessions Court attached a four-storey building with all movables of the more than a century-old VK Obaidullah Government Urdu Medium Higher Primary Boys School in Shivajinagar for recovery of Rs 12.82 crore without affecting the academic activities.
The court said the attachment order will stand cancelled automatically if the Commissioner for Public Instruction and Block Education Officer deposited the amount of Rs 12.82 crore to the account of the petitioner - competent authority, appointed under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, for IMA Group of Companies.
The competent authority moved the court seeking attachment of the property as the IMA MD Mansoor Khan illegally diverted Rs 12.82 crore out of the depositors’ fund in the name of donation to the school.
Court gives four months to deposit amount
As many as 895 students are studying in the school and 68 teachers and staff working. Allowing the petition of the competent authority, Judge Shridhar Gopalakrishna Bhat granted four months to the Commissioner for Public Instruction and BEO to deposit the said amount to the account of the competent authority as the academic year of 2022-23 ends in April 2023. If they fail to deposit the amount, the petitioner is entitled to recover the amount from the attached property expeditiously to disburse the same in favour of the depositors, the judge said.
IMA Advisory Council, through its president Mansoor Khan, had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the BEO to take up all round improvement of Obaidullah School and donated the amount for maintenance of the school and its infrastructure.
The expenditure for construction of the school building, which has 28 classrooms, two dining halls, a conference hall, four staff rooms, three science laboratories and a library, which runs into Rs 10 crore, was borne by the Council. IMA paid charges towards the maintenance of the said school for two years from 2017-18 to 2018-19. The court observed that the amount transferred for the construction of the new school building by adopting the school is nothing but a malafide transfer of the funds.