NW DELHI: Amid political crisis in Manipur, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned former Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh in Imphal on Wednesday in connection with the Rs 332 crore misappropriation case and also summoned O. Naba Kishore Singh, then Chairman of the Manipur Development Society (MDS).
During the questioning that started around 11.30 a.m, the CBI team asked the former Chief Minister about amassing of huge wealth between 2009 to 2017, when he was the MDS Chairman.
“The agency has also summoned the then MDS Chairman for questioning on Thursday in Imphal,” a CBI source told IANS.
During his tenure as the MDS Chairman from June 2009 to July 2017, it’s alleged, Singh conspired and misappropriated Rs 332 crore of the Rs 518 crore government fund entrusted to the MDS for development works.
Three former MDS Chairmen — D.S. Poonia, P.C. Lawmuknga and O Nabakishore Singh (all retired IAS officers) — have also been named in the CBI FIR along with Singh. Y. Ningthem Singh, former MDS project director and S. Ranjit Singh, its administrative officer, also figure in the FIR.
The CBI took over the case on November 20, 2019 on the state’s BJP government’s request and after the permission of the central government.
Meanwhile, four MLAs of the National People’s Party (NPP), who had withdrawn support from the BJP-led government triggering a political crisis last week, were on Tuesday flown to Guwahati. They are supposed to visit Delhi to meet the senior BJP leadership.
The Nongthombam Biren government was reduced to a minority after nine MLAs — four of the NPP, three of the BJP, one of the Trinamool Congress and an Independent — withdrew support and went to the opposition Congress, which subsequently staked claim to form an alliance government.
IANS