Cash seizure case: Bishop under scanner over D-links

BHOPAL: Multiple investigating agencies — including state and central intelligence units — have initiated a probe against bishop P K Singh, moderator of Church of North India (CNI), following allegations of a ‘deal’ with suspected Dawood associate Riyaz Bhati, sources told TOI.
Singh’s home and office were searched by EOW on September 8, yielding nearly Rs 2 crore in cash, including foreign currency.
The very next day, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered EOW to investigate if the money was used for religious conversion or other illegal activities.
Nilesh Lawrence, a Chhat-tisgarh-based activist whose complaint led to the EOW action on Singh, alleged that Singh had leased out a prime property of CNI — its gymkhana — to Bhati in 2016. The CNI gymkhana, a British-era building, was leased for around Rs 3 crore, he claimed. Lawrence had sent complaints to Prime Minister’s Office and the Enforcement Directorate, demanding a probe against Singh.
Lawrence said there wereobjections to the property being leased to Bhati, a 54-yearold resident of Versova in Mumbai and a suspected aide of Dawood. He was recently accused by Mumbai Police in an extortion case and has been booked in multiple cases of extortion, land-grab, cheating, forgery and firing. He has been arrested while allegedly trying to flee the country using fake passports in 2015 and 2020. Bhati was also named an accused along with formerMumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh and dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze in an FIR registered at Goregaon police station in July last year.
Bhati’s anticipatory bail application in the case was rejected in September this year and since then, he has been on the run, said sources. Police are looking for him.
The EOW searches on Singh followed a complaint that he had swindled over Rs 2. 7 crore collected as school fees from the diocesan schools. Singh was said to be in Germany at the time of the search. Officials seized around Rs 1. 65 crore in cash and foreign currency worth around Rs 14 lakh from the bishop’s house, as per an official release. A currency counting machine had to be fetched from a nearby bank to count the seized cash. Singh is also accused of alleged cheating and forgery to change the leadership of the diocesan education board.