Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum on Tuesday exposed the fraud committed in Mandya distirct, where signatures of the KSMF were forged. These 125 applications have been submitted for loan to the Women and Children’s Welfare Department. The seals and signatures of KSMF have been duplicated on these applications and KSMF verified the applications and called the bluff of members of Ashodaya, a Mysore-based NGO and exposed the fraud element.

The activists of KSMF also met the Superintendent and the Deputy Commissioner who assured to take strict action against the culprits. “In front of us, after taking our complaint, the SP called the sub-inspector and instructed him,” said Mallappa Kumbar, State Coordinator of Forum, who demanded immediate action against the erring NGO members.

Due to the actions of Ashodaya, the reputation the community was hit for a six. The Government has conferred the responsibility of confirming the identity of community members to KSMF through a government order. Those who work towards the benefit of sexual minorities, including community leaders and organisation workers, are aghast at hearing such large-scale malpractice.

We, the Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum, have worked with community members for nearly 10 years, and we have maintained a policy of being honest about our work. We declare that the dishonest actions of these few people will inflict grave injustice on lakhs of community members in Karnataka.

We have contacted Ashodhaya and requested them to engage in dialogue with us but we are yet to receive a positive response from them. As they have not responded to our attempts to contact them, we were forced to meet the SP and register a complaint.

KSMF assures full-fledged support to the community, and we will make sure that all facilities the community are entitled to through the government will be made available.

Our demands: • That Ashodhaya apologise to the community members of Mandya District and KSMF for their actions.

To contact Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum (KSMF) call Mallappa S. Kumbar at 9591540181