Team Anna urging retired judges to probe charges against them

Plagued by controversies, Team Anna is approaching retired judges requesting them to become part of a committee to be set up by the civil society group to probe allegations against its key members.

Prominent Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan has been entrusted with the task of approaching retired judges and seeking their consent for being on the panel which is to be formed within a fortnight.

"This was decided by Anna himself. We will set up the committee within 15 days. I will be talking to retired judges," Bhushan told PTI.

This committee will go into allegations levelled against prominent team members like Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and others.

The decision to conduct a probe by retired judges was taken at a meeting attended by Hazare, Bhushan, Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and others at Ralegan Siddhi last month.

Bedi was in the eye of a controversy after it came to light that she overcharged her hosts by inflating travel bills while Kejriwal was accused of diverting donations for Hazare agitation to a trust run by him.

Hazare himself defended both his aides saying it was decided earlier itself that donations will be deposited in the account of the trust. He also said people throw stones at trees which bear fruits.

As controversy rocked Team Anna, Hazare also decided to write a constitution for the anti-corruption movement led by him and reconstitute his core team after that.

He had admitted that as controversies he had thought of changing his team many times as he heard about the allegations again and again.