KSBC head tells Karnataka High Court misappropriation case against him is result of 'lawyers bickering'

Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) Chairperson Vishal Raghu, accused of having misappropriated official funds, told the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday that the case was primarily one of lawyers bickering with one another, and hence, should be sorted out “internally.”.Senior Advocate Uday Holla, who appeared for Raghu, told Justice M Nagaprasanna that it was a case where all lawyers except one (the complainant) were on the same side. "This is an unfortunate matter of lawyers bickering...question before the Court was if the matter should be escalated to the police. In my opinion, this should be sorted internally,” Holla said..The Court was hearing a petition filed by Raghu to quash a first information report (FIR) registered against him on April 17 this year following a complaint made by Senior Advocate S Basavraj.As per the FIR, KSBC had organised a State Level Advocates Conference at Mysuru in August last year. ₹3.2 crore was collected for the conference from different sources, including ₹1.16 crore collected as donations from lawyers including Basavraj.It was alleged that Raghu and other KSBC office bearers produced forged bills and bogus accounts to show that ₹3.12 crore was spent on the convention. They had siphoned off around ₹77 lakh to their personal accounts, Basavraj had claimed in his complaint.The Bar Council of India (BCI) on April 12 formed a three-member committee to look into the matter. On April 19, the High Court stayed the FIR and further legal proceedings against the KSBC members.During today's hearing, Holla told the Court that Basavaraj had himself attended the event in Mysuru and had later alleged that funds for such event had been misappropriated.Basavraj, who appeared as party in person before the Court, reiterated that Raghu and some others had produced forged bills for lakhs of money that they transferred to their personal accounts..Justice Nagaprasanna reserved orders on the plea and said that he would pronounce the order on August 14.