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CBI books Manipur ex-CM over fund misappropriation
CBI teams conducted raids at nine locations in Aizawl, Imphal and Gurugram, including the residences of Singh and the former secretaries, two officials familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided the residence of senior Congress leader and former Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh after registering a case against him, three former chief secretaries of the state and others for allegedly misappropriating state government funds worth ₹332 crore.
CBI teams conducted raids at nine locations in Aizawl, Imphal and Gurugram, including the residences of Singh and the former secretaries, two officials familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
The raids were conducted in connection with the suspected misappropriation of funds allotted to Manipur Development Society (MDS) for development of infrastructure in the northeastern state.
Those named in the CBI’s first information report (FIR), registered on Wednesday, include Ibobi Singh, retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers DS Poonia, P C Lawmuknga and O Nabakishore Singh (all three held the post of MDS chairman), former MDS project directorY Ningthem Singh and administrative officer S Ranjit Singh.
“It was alleged that the accused while working as Chairman of Manipur Development Society from June 30, 2009 to July 6, 2017, in conspiracy with others, misappropriated government funds to the tune of ₹332 crore out of the total amount of ₹518 crore which was entrusted to them for the purpose of executing development work,” the CBI said in a statement.
Ibobi Singh, who was chief minister of Manipur from 2002 to 2017, denied any wrongdoing. He was chairman of MDS between July 1, 2013 and August 31, 2014,
Reacting to the CBI’s FIR and raids, Ibobi Singh told HT over phone from Imphal: “I will give full cooperation to any agency. Let them investigate and after that the facts and findings will come out whether I am involved or not”.
One of the people cited above , a CBI official, said the agency had recovered from Ibobi Singh’s residence demonetized currency notes worth ₹26.49 lakh besides ₹11.47 lakh cash in new notes, branded items and eight cars including an Audi, a Mitsubishi and a Toyota Fortuner.
The CBI official cited above added that the agency has also recovered documents pertaining to several plots, houses, apartments and bank accounts belonging to the former CM, three retired IAS officers and other two.
In all, the central agency recovered ₹15.47 lakh in cash from all the locations and demonetized currency worth ₹36.49 lakh from all the raided premises. Demonetized currency worth ₹10 lakh was recovered from the residence of Ningthem Singh, according to the CBI officials.
.The second official said Ningthem Singh also had two palatial houses spread over 3,500 square yards in Imphal.
At Punia’s residence, CBI found documents showing he had an apartment, a residential plot in Noida, two shops in Dwarka, a flat in Saket and seven bank accounts. From Lawmuknga, the agency recovered Rs.4 lakh in cash in new notes. They found that Nabakishore Singh possessed a four -storey building spread over 7,000 square feet, two houses, flats in Ghaziabad and Gurugram and a Hyundai car dealership in Imphal in the name of his wife and son.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government of Manipur led by chief minister N Biren Singh filed two FIRs in the matter on September 1, 2017 alleging large-scale irregularities at MDS. CBI took over the state police cases and registered its FIR on Wednesday.
