Lucknow: A case of embezzlement of Rs 8.75 lakh from the Advocates’ Disaster Relief Fund, created to provide emergency financial assistance to lawyers and their families, has come to light in Balrampur district. Police have registered an FIR against 11 individuals, including the committee’s former convenor.
The President of the Collectorate Bar Association, Kamleshwar Singh, complained that the Advocates’ Disaster Relief Committee holds a bank account at the Balrampur branch of UP Gramin Bank, which is operated through joint signatures of authorised office-bearers.
The former convenor, Shashank Kumar Tripathi, who was removed from his post during a general body meeting on December 12, 2025, continued to access the committee’s banking operations. He allegedly obtained 50 cheque leaves from the bank on April 16 and June 3. The accused prepared forged cheques bearing fabricated signatures and seals of authorised signatories and withdrew Rs 8.75 lakh. The withdrawals were shown as payments made to various individuals.
According to the FIR, the payments reflected included Rs 1 lakh each in the names of Ram Charitra, Devi Prasad, Avadh Ram, Lakshman, Ambuj, Shiv Shankar, Ram Sevak, and Durga Prasad; Rs 25,000 to Ram Surat; and Rs 50,000 in the name of Akshay Kumar. On June 8, committee office-bearers obtained the bank account statement and noticed suspicious withdrawals. They examined the transactions, following which a general body meeting of the committee was convened on June 10. The cheques were scrutinised. Authorised signatories Ajay Bahadur Singh, Anil Kumar Shukla, and Ramesh Chandra Tripathi stated that the signatures on the cheques were not theirs. The committee concluded that forged signatures and counterfeit seals had been used for the withdrawals.
The bar association president alleged that the former convenor connived with others to prepare forged cheques and obtain payments. Confirming the registration of the case, Nagar Kotwali Station House Officer Santosh Kumar Mishra said an FIR has been lodged based on the complaint. He said investigators are examining bank records, the process through which cheque books were issued, the identities of the beneficiaries who received the payments, and the authenticity of the signatures appearing on the disputed cheques.
Police said further legal action would be taken based on the evidence collected during the investigation.
