Bhubaneswar, June 12: Child prodigy Budhia Singh’s coach Biranchi Das has threatened to sue Khurda District Child Welfare Committee for defamation, as the latter has levelled charges of “misappropriation of funds” against Das in a fresh notice.

A letter to Das from the committee yesterday sought detailed accounts of a monetary gift of Rs 9 lakh allegedly handed over to the coach “sometime in December 2006 by Dubai-based Koohiji Trust”.

The letter, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, alleged: “It has come to the notice of this CWC that some other organisations/companies gifted cheques of different amounts for the said child and you (Das) received the same on his behalf…such funds do not belong to you and its receipt by you is only entrustment of the funds to you for being returned to the said child.”

CWC has directed Das to produce details of funds received on behalf of and in the name of Budhia from October 2005 to till date on June 29.

Das has complained that the notice is defamatory in nature.

“This (the allegation) is absolutely untrue. I am yet to receive a single rupee from the Koohiji Trust,” he told The Telegraph today.

To prove his point, he submitted an e-mail from Matrix, Koohiji Trust’s the PR agency. In the email the agency states that “the money will be given in two instalments to buy a car for Budhia and taking out an LIC policy in his name respectively”. He said he would consult lawyers and move the high court to file a defamation suit against the CWC.

Also, Orissa High Court today issued notices to the state to show a cause as to why an order restraining five-year-old Budhia Singh, from being engaged in the proposed marathon walk, should not be quashed.

The CWC had on June 5 night passed a comprehensive order, which clearly stated, “the child named Budhia Singh shall not be subjected to walking by anyone, in any manner in the scheduled long-distance walk from Bhubaneswar to Calcutta.”

Vacation judge Justice A.S. Naidu today, after hearing the arguments of Budhia’s counsel Bibhu Prasad Tripathy, asked for explanation.

Budhia had filed the criminal revision petition through coach Das. Tripathy argued that the jurisdiction of committee to issue such an order of such nature was beyond its power.

He contended that Section 23 of the Act could be invoked only when a child is in conflict with juvenile justice and presents himself or is produced before the Committee by his parents or guardian.