General Council meet of Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Film Artistes Association) held here today has endorsed a proposal to expel former office bearers
Sarath Kumar and
Radha Ravi from the actors' body, General Secretary of the Sangam Vishal said here today. He said the meet gave its approval for the expulsion of the two against the background of alleged irregularities during their tenure.
Norms like sending them a formal communication on the meet's decision will be done, he told reporters here after the 63rd council meet. Treasurer and actor
Karthi said the duo during their tenure had done an amendment to the byelaws allowing them to be life time trustees of the
Nadigar Sangam Charitable Trust
, run by the SIAA. He said that the trust byelaws envisaged nine trustees to run the administration. However, the number of trustees were altered to five through the amendment done in 2008.
Also, both of them appointed themselves as life time trustees. "We do not know how they did that...how they got the right to appoint themselves as life time trustees," he said, adding, other trustees or office-bearers were not kept in the loop.
Actor Radha Ravi, meanwhile, contested the decision of the council while speaking to a Tamil news TV channel. The expulsion move comes after the Sangam's recent decision to suspend them. Also, Nadigar Sangam Charitable Trust had approached the Madras High Court in September last in a connected issue.
Sangam had petitioned the court to direct the police to register an FIR against R Sarathkumar, Radharavi, and another former ex-officio trustee Vagai Chandrasekar for alleged misappropriation of Rs 1.65 crore of the trust's funds.