Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing on Monday detained Bishop PC Singh of the Church of North India Jabalpur Dioces from Nagpur Airport in Maharashtra for questioning in an alleged forgery case, reported PTI.
On September 8, Madhya Pradesh’s Economic Offences Wing had recovered Rs 1.65 crore and $18,000 (Rs 14.3 lakh) in cash during searches conducted at Singh’s residence. At the time of the raid, Singh was in Germany.
While conducting searches at the bishop’s home and office, the Economic Offences Wing found out about his alleged fraud in lease renewal of trust institutions, non-payment of tax, 17 property documents, 48 bank accounts, and eight cars.
A case was registered against Singh last month after a complaint alleged that he had indulged in financial misconduct while running an educational society of which he was the chairperson.
The Madhya Pradesh Police had found that Rs 2.70 crore collected as students’ fees between 2004-’05 and 2011-’12 was allegedly transferred to religious institutions, misused and spent by the bishop for personal needs, reported The Times of India.
Following the raids, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said on September 9 that the Economic Offences Wing will investigate whether the money was being used for religious conversion and other illegal activities through the Church of North India.
Singh has been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (dishonestly using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code.
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