CBI to grill former Manipur CM Ibobi Singh a week after he staked claim to form govt
New Delhi: Within a week of former Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh staking claim to form government in his state as part of the Secular Progressive Front (SPF), a team of the CBI reached Manipur on Tuesday to continue a probe against him in the alleged misappropriation of Rs 332 crore from funds of the Manipur Development Society between 2009 and 2017, officials here said.
Sources in the know added that Ibobi Singh has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to be questioned in the alleged corruption case in Imphal on Wednesday. The CBI had registered a case in the matter in 2019, naming Ibobi Singh as an accused given his position as the Chairman of the Manipur Development Society at the time the funds were allegedly misappropriated.
Interestingly, the case was initially registered by Manipur Police against Ibobi and senior bureaucrats in his government on a complaint from the state government after the Congress was ousted in the 2017 Assembly elections in September 2017. The local police had named Ibobi Singh in its FIR based on a complaint from the Planning Department in the Manipur Secretariat which had pointed to the former Chief Minister's alleged role in the misappropriation.
However, after the N Biren Singh government took charge, the state government had transferred the case from local police to the CBI through a notification in November 2019, following which the central agency registered a case against Ibobi, DS Poonia (IAS: 1978), PC Lawmkunga (IAS: 1979), O Nabakishore Singh (IAS: 1984), Y Ningthem Singh, Ranjit Singh and other erstwhile officials of the MDS.
Significantly, just six days ago, Ibobi Singh had walked into Raj Bhawan in Imphal to stake claim to form the government as part of an alliance between "like-minded parties" called the SPF. The confidence to overthrow the BJP-government in the state came after nine MLAs from the Assembly had resigned to join the Indian National Congress, of whom three were from the BJP, with Ibobi claiming they now had the numbers.
The disgruntled MLAs, including the former Deputy Chief Minister of the state, had said the ruling party was being disrespectful to legislators. With the Manipur Speaker having accepted the resignation of the three BJP MLAs, the Congress now has 20 seats in the 60-seated Assembly while the BJP's strength has been reduced to 18.
However, after news of the CBI team reaching Manipur broke, BJP sources said that four NPP ministers who resigned had been brought to Delhi for a meeting with the central leadership. The federal probe agency was quick to conduct raids in the case at premises of Ibobi and other senior IAS officers, all three of whom were Chief Secretaries of the state and the CBI had also claimed to have seized demonetised currency worth several lakhs from Ibobi's premises. However, the CBI had not made any other progress in the investigation public since then until his summoning.
After the raids were conducted in November last year, Ibobi had told reporters in New Delhi that he welcomed any probe by the CBI. "I have also said if they think that I have committed something wrong only after investigation it can be proved. I will give them fullest support," he said.
