MP: EOW searches church bishop's house, office in Jabalpur after cheating complaint

JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing on Thursday conducted searches at the office and residence of the Church of North India Jabalpur Diocese's bishop against whom a cheating case was registered, an EOW official said.

The EOW had last month registered a case on charges of cheating against Bishop P C Singh after a complaint alleged that he indulged in financial misconduct in running an educational society, of which he is the chairman, EOW's Superintendent of Police Devendra Singh Rajput told PTI.

Searches are on to recover documents related to the alleged misappropriation of funds, he said.

Singh is currently in Germany.

His wife and son were at his residence here, the official said.

"Searches are being conducted at the residence and office of the Board of Education Church of North India (Jabalpur Diocese) chairman Bishop PC Singh for allegedly forging documents to change the educational society's original name and unlawfully diverting students' fees collected by various educational institutions for fulfilling his personal needs," the official said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Manjeet Singh had looked into the complaint and preliminary investigation revealed that Rs 2.70 crore collected as students' fees by the society's various institutions between 2004-05 and 2011-12 was allegedly transferred to religious institutions, misused and spent by the bishop for personal needs, Rajput said.

After the preliminary investigation, a case was registered against Bishop Singh and former assistant registrar of Firms and Societies BS Solanki under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forge document or electronic record) and 120 B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), the EOW official said.