I'm not responsible for Kiran Bedi's inflated bills: Anil Bal

NEW DELHI: Kiran Bedi, in the eye of a storm for claiming inflated air fares, on Tuesday faced fresh embarrassment when one of the founder members of her NGO managing her trips quit the trust claiming his reputation had been tarnished.

Anil Bal, proprietor of Flywell Travel and a trustee of India Vision Foundation, controlled by Bedi, said the former police official's defence on overcharging her hosts has conveyed the wrong impression among public that he was responsible for inflated invoices. "In view of what has happened which unnecessarily tarnished my reputation I have decided to resign as trustee of IVF with immediate effect and have also requested IVF to engage another travel agent for their travel needs. Amount to the credit of IVF as on date in our records is being refunded to IVF by crossed cheque to close the account with us," Bal said in a statement in the Capital on Tuesday.

Bedi collected full business class fares from her hosts though she travelled economy class, most of the time at 75% discount, courtesy her gallantry medal. After a newspaper reported the matter in detail Bedi defended herself saying she did not personally benefit and that the money gained went to the foundation.

The controversy triggered a fresh war of words between Team Anna and Congress. Congress general secretary Digivijaya Singh, ridiculed Bedi's explanation saying that by the same yardstick every bribery case can be closed after the bribe-taker returns the money. However, Anna Hazare defended Bedi and blamed a 'gang of four' in the central government for the 'distractions' in the path of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Reacting to Anna's assertions, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said civil society members should communicate directly with the government and not through the media. "I don't think that we should engage in a dialogue of this kind through the media. Whoever needs to talk, I am sure we have a lot of channels by which we can talk directly. I don't think we should encourage discord and distancing between civil society and the government," Khurshid told reporters here.