NEW DELHI: Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has served a show cause notice to the ad-hoc body of the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) for fraudulently using the national Olympic committee's PAN card to open a bank account.
In its letter to the ad-hoc panel, a copy of which is with TOI, IOA president PT Usha alleged that the bank account has been opened without obtaining the prior approval of her and that the account in question is reportedly being operated by the chairman and a member of the committee.
"The use of the IOA's PAN card for such purposes without explicit authorisation is a serious breach of protocol and may constitute a cognizable offense under the Income Tax act," the letter read.
On June 13 last year, IOA had formed the ad-hoc committee to run the VFI's day-to-day affairs after the national federation was suspended by the sports ministry owing to perpetual infighting, proxy voting and absence of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to address grievances related to sexual harassment. The VFI is under suspension from December 2019.
The ad-hoc panel consists of Rohit Rajpal (executive council member, IOA) as its chairman and Alaknanda Ashok (joint secretary, IOA), S Gopinath (retd IPS and former athlete) and Stephen Block (International Volleyball Federation's head of legal and general counsel) as its members.
