The Charity Commission has contacted Victim Support about allegations in the Mail on Sunday at the weekend that its CEO was involved in an armed dispute over property in Pakistan.
According to the newspaper, Javed Khan went to a remote Kashmiri village last week accompanied by several men armed with automatic weapons, who used a bulldozer to smash down part of a disputed boundary wall that separated land owned by Khan’s family and a local graveyard.
Khan has described the claims as "either false or a gross distortion of the truth" likely to have been spread by people angry about a recent civil court ruling against them.
The Charity Commission confirmed this morning that it wrote to Victim Support yesterday in light of the story.
A Commission spokeswoman said: “We have written to the charity to see what steps they are taking to assess the allegations and we would expect to be kept informed until the matter is resolved.
“At this stage, it is not clear that there is a regulatory role for the Commission, however we will remain in contact with the trustees and will keep this decision under review.”
The Mail on Sunday report alleged that shots were fired in the air and that Khan threatened a woman who tried to intervene to save the wall. The confrontation only calmed down when local police arrived.
Khan's denial
Khan has issued a statement claiming that the allegations were “either false or a gross distortion of the truth” and that he was considering legal action against those who perpetrated the story.
He admitted that he was with a group of people who “supervised the demolition of an illegally erected wall on our land” but added: "I wish to make it very clear that neither I nor any of my group were armed in anyway and, needless to say, I did not threaten anybody in any way.”
He insisted that the group were “acting in accordance with a written authority given to us by the proper local government officials”.
In response to the Mail’s claim that he later “spent several hours at a local police station as officers tried to resolve the row”, Khan said that at no point was he under police investigation for his conduct.
In. fact, he said, he went to the police station to accept an apology from the other party, who had been arrested for their actions and was in custody.
Khan said: “I believe these false allegations were made in response to the authorities ruling in favour of my family in relation to this property dispute and I will be seeking legal advice in relation to them.”
Victim Support making urgent enquiries
Enid Rowland, the chair of Victim Support, issued a separate statement saying that she had spoken to Khan about the claims and that the board was making further enquiries as a matter of urgency.
Barnardo’s, which recently appointed Khan as its new CEO to start in April, said in a statement: “We are aware of these reports and are in contact with Victim Support about it. We do not have any further comment to make at this time.”
