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Fakir Hassen in Durban
A prominent South African Indian lawyer is fighting a legal battle to save his career after being accused of illicitly using funds held in a trust.
Colleagues of Arvind Kumar Kissoon Singh have pressed charges in the Pietermaritzburg high court to strike him off the lawyers' roll.
Singh had reportedly been using money of the provincial Natal Law Society trust for 10 months. He has been temporarily suspended from practising as an attorney.
Although the funds have since been paid back, the society contended that their use had not been authorised by clients who had placed it in the trust.
The society regarded the misuse of the trust funds as theft, and said Singh was no longer fit to practice as an attorney.
Singh, whose father was also a well-known lawyer in the Indian community, has been ordered to show cause in the high court why he should not be struck off the roll.
He allegedly admitted to Gregory Noel Smith, the president of the society, and another colleague that he had used more than 485,000 rands of trust money.
Singh holds positions in a variety of community and educational organisations, and service bodies for the disabled in South Africa. He was recently appointed to serve on the advisory council of the national education minister.
Indo-Asian News Service
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