On Monday, the Economic Offences Wing of Madhya Pradesh police arrested the bishop of the Church of North India’s Jabalpur Diocese PC Singh, and registered a case of cheating against him. This is after the Police detained Singh for questioning from the Nagpur Airport, Maharashtra.
Earlier on Thursday, the EOW had conducted raids at the residential premises of the bishop to recover crores of cash and foreign currency. The EOW also raided the office of the Church to recover documents related to the alleged misappropriation of funds. PC Singh has been charged with cheating and engaging in the misappropriation of funds in running an educational society.
Madhya Pradesh’s EOW Finds 174 Bank Accnts Linked To Church Of North India’s Bishop PC Singh
— Legal Rights Observatory- LRO (@LegalLro) September 12, 2022
EOW Jabalpur told they also found Rs 2.02 Crs worth of Fixed Deposit Receipts n 174 bank accnts linked to him.
Now focus on @myogiadityanath to dismantle PC Singh’s Prayagraj black racket pic.twitter.com/dC81JwCq72
The EOW official stated that the Board of Education Church of North India Jabalpur Diocese chairman Bishop PC Singh forged the documents to change the original name of the educational society and illegally diverted student fees collected by the society. Preliminary investigations revealed that Singh had illegally transferred around Rs 2.7 crores collected as students’ fees by the society between 2004-05 and 2011-12 to religious institutions and misused the money to fulfilling his personal needs.
However, on Monday the Police confirmed that it recovered Rs 1.65 crore and USD 18,000 (Rs 14.3 lakh) from PC Singh’s residence and also found a total of Rs 2.02 crore worth of Fixed Deposit Receipts. The Police said that there are around 174 bank accounts linked to him out of which 128 are personal or under various organizations, he is tied with, and the remaining 46 are attached to educational institutions.
“It has been found that money from educational institutions transactions has taken place and gone into personal accounts. We have a lot of information, but as the investigation progresses, we will work it out. But our first step is the educational institutions and looking into siphoning of funds from them. And also looking into the source of where the money has come from and where it has been spent. Whatever illegal activities that the money has been spent on will be taken into account and action will be taken”, SP Devendra Singh Rajput noted in the case.
To note, Bishop PC Singh was also involved in a land scam that had come to light in the year 2019. It was reported that Bishop Peter Baldev of the Church of North India and his 16 other associates had illegally sold land worth Rs 10,000 crores in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, and surrounding areas.
An FIR was also registered against Bishop Peter Baldev and 16 others including P.C. Singh, P.P. Marandi, P.K. Samanta Roy, general secretary Alwin Masih, Jayant Agarwal, Pal Dupahre, P.P. Habil, Suresh Jacob, Rajiv Chand, A.R. Stephen, H.R. Mal, Marvin Masih, Prem Masih, Ashok Vishwas, Prabal Dutta, and Shashi Prakash
In the current case, an FIR against Bishop PC Singh and former assistant registrar of Firms and Societies BS Solanki has been registered in the case. The duo has been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document or electronic record), and 120 B (punishment for criminal conspiracy).
