MP: ED arrests sacked Bishop in Jabalpur on money laundering charges

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a sacked Bishop from Madhya Pradesh on money laundering charges linked to alleged financial irregularities, official sources said Thursday.

P C Singh was arrested by the officials of the federal probe agency from Jabalpur city on Wednesday night and will be produced before a local Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Thursday where the ED will seek his custody, they said.

The agency had last month searched the residence of Singh, the sacked Bishop of Church of North India (CNI) Jabalpur Diocese, and had recovered documents and records that also show some of his alleged land investments in Jharkhand's capital Ranchi.

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The money laundering case stems from a Madhya Pradesh Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) FIR. The EOW had also arrested Singh in September last year after allegedly recovering around Rs 1.60 crore in Indian and foreign currencies from his bungalow in Jabalpur, about 320 km from state capital Bhopal.

The EOW had raided him on September 8 last year after registering a cheating case against him on a complaint.

The complaint alleged that he indulged in financial misconduct in running an educational society wherein Rs 2.70 crore collected as students' fees by the society's various institutions between 2004-05 and 2011-12 was misused.

After his arrest, the CNI sacked him from the Bishop's post.