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Imphal, Oct 9 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached three immovable properties worth a total of Rs 71 lakh belonging to two persons in Manipur under the PMLA, 2002, the central probe agency said on Thursday.
ED, Imphal Sub-Zonal Office has provisionally attached three immovable properties worth a total of Rs 71 lakh (approx.) on September 30 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
One of the three properties, a residential property, is owned by Konsam (O) Sheetyabati Devi, the then finance officer in-charge of Manipur University, the ED said in a statement. Jiban is the wife of Kumar Singh, who is worth Rs 23.95 lakh.
It said two other pieces of agricultural land are owned by Laurembam Rameshwar Meitei (contractor), owner of M/s Laurembam Enterprises in Imphal, worth Rs 48 lakh.
The ED initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), CBI, Imphal under various sections of the IPC, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, alleging that Manipur University officials including K Basant Singh, K Jiban Kumar, N Tejendro Singh and former Manipur University Vice-Chancellor HNK Sarma and others entered into criminal conspiracy with each other.
He also entered into a criminal conspiracy with contractor Laurembam Rameshwar Meitei, owner of M/s Laurembam Enterprises, to defraud Manipur University.
The ED said that by misusing their (university officials) official positions, they had fraudulently and dishonestly given undue advantage to contractor Laurembam Rameshwar Meitei in awarding the tender for supply of various furniture items to the International Guest House (IGH) of Manipur University.
He fraudulently produced receipts for the entire quantity of furniture items and paid the entire bill amount to M/s Lurembam Enterprises.
Further, he tried to hide the items of furniture burnt in the alleged fire incident in the Recreation Hall of the University and thereby caused huge loss to the higher educational institution and wrongful gain to himself.
ED investigation revealed that Manipur University officials awarded tenders to M/s Lorembam Enterprises for procurement of furniture items, without following proper procedures and norms and in gross violation of Rule 148 of the General Financial Rules.
Further, Rameshwar Meitei, owner of M/s Laurembam Enterprises, did not supply furniture items worth Rs 64,36,502 as per the supply order, and illegally issued bills for the said amount and also claimed installation charges of Rs 9,65,476.
Thus, a total amount of Rs 74,01,978 was illegally paid to Rameshwar Meitei by the Manipur University authorities. Therefore, a sum of Rs 74,01,978 was misappropriated by Rameshwar Meitei in connivance with the authorities of Manipur University as a result of criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence, and thus, this sum of Rs 74,01,978 is nothing but the proceeds of crime.
Further investigation is ongoing.
–IANS
SC/And