The Madras High Court on Friday directed Kancheepuram District Crime Branch police to speed up investigation into a complaint lodged by South Indian Artistes Association, popularly known as Nadigar Sangam, in September 2017, accusing its former office-bearers Radha Ravi, R. Sarath Kumar and others of having misappropriated the association’s properties. Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan directed the Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police to monitor the probe and make sure that it gets completed within three months. The direction was issued while disposing of a petition filed by Nadigar Sangam, represented by its president Vishal Krishna, to transfer the investigation to any other independent investigating agency.

The petitioner’s counsel R. Krishna Ravindran brought it to the notice of the court that Nadigar Sangam was also running a charitable trust since 1987, when a vacant land measuring 26 cents in Kancheepuram district was purchased for the welfare of its members. However, in 2006, Mr. Radha Ravi and other former office-bearers sold the land to third parties, he claimed.

The sale was executed through a power of attorney without approval of the general body or the executive committee of Nadigar Sangam, the association claimed, and added that the misappropriation came to light only after the incumbent office-bearers assumed charge in June 2016. Though a complaint was lodged in 2017, it was not registered for long.

The police booked an FIR against the accused only on June 26, 2018, because of a court direction issued by the court on March 28, 2018, and even then, there was no progress in the investigation because the accused were influential people, it claimed, and sought to transfer the probe to some other agency.