EXCLUSIVE

The Kennel Club of India (KCI) that boasts of President of India among its patrons, is in a total state of mess.

All is not well with one of the oldest Kennel clubs of the country that the Britishers started way back in 1890s, with allegations of gross violations of rules and regulations, misappropriation of funds and large-scale membership frauds made against a key office bearer of the club.

In fact, the registrar of societies who inquired into the allegations of fraudulent practices, has in a formal directive asked the KCI Secretary to stick to rules of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.

For the present, the registrar of societies refrained from taking punitive action as the matter was pending in the Madras High Court. However, the Registrar of Societies had ordered immediate effect the repayment of the salary and ex- gratia amount paid to the current Secretary CV Sudarshan and the former Secretary (wife of current Secretary).

The registrar of societies in the report noted with concern that ‘The Kennel Club of India’ society had failed to submit its annual returns from 2004-05 to 2016-17. Besides, there were several glaring omissions and commissions in the functioning of the body.

Petitioners Sunny Jacob, Partha Sekar, Somnath Mukharjee, Nagina, R.C. Lingam and D. Krishnamurthy had made allegations in a submission to the registrar.

The allegations levelled against the society’s secretary C.V. Sudharshan include frequent changes in bye-laws to suit his convenience; induction of 15 new members unilaterally, suspension of selected life members/judges of the KCI despite the Madras High Court revoking their suspension and permitting them to judge, and the like.

The Income Tax department has also frozen the accounts of KCI for not complying with procedures. There are allegations of misuse in funds collected for Uttarakhand flood relief to the tune of Rs 10 lakh.

The petitioners had made a written submission on June 15 compiling their list of grievances that include misuse of funds and denial of their rights as members of the KCI. They also alleged that the committee elections of KCI held in September last year was suspicious as more number of votes were cast as compared to the number of members in the list of Registrar of Society.

Lack of transparency in financial transactions, scams related to micro-chip supply, handling three posts like secretary, treasurer and editor of IKG magazine of KCI by Mr. Sudharshan were some of the other complaints made by the petitioners.

The KCI secretary Sudarshan denied all charges and described them as baseless calculated to tarnish his image and also to lower the reputation of the KCI society.