By Matters India Reporter
Jabalpur, Sept 9, 2022: The Economic Offence Wing officials have raided the office and residence of the moderator of the Church of North India (CNI) and seized cash from his possession.
The officials claimed that they on September 8 seized 27 million rupees and US$18,000 from Bishop P C Singh of Jabalpur diocese
The bishop is currently is out of India, however, his family members were present at the time raid in his residence.
The CNI has not officially reacted to the raid in the office and residence of its moderator, the top official of the Church, despite its wide ramifications in the functioning of other CNI dioceses in the country.
The sleuths of the Economic Offence Wing, a special branch of the state police dealing with economic offences, acted following a complaint against the bishop for alleged corruption and embezzlement diocesan funds, including the fees collected from students from the diocesan schools.
The prelate is also accused of appointing himself as the chairman of the diocesan education board through fraudulently and swindling the fund from the diocesan school in his personal accounts.
The special police branch, in its preliminary probe, found the bishop misusing the diocesan funds since 2004.
The special police establishment has confirmed the raid, however, it has not released details of the money and other documents seized from him.
Today’s Hindi paper Hindustan has a front page story about Mahant Narendra Giri a famous seer of Prayagraj who allegedly committed suicide last 20th September. When his room was now opened by the CBI they found Rupees Thirty Million in cash, jewelry worth several millions, 13 cartridges and 10 quintals of Desi ghee!
Looks like all religious leaders are the same, just feathering their own nests. SHAMEFUL!!
In connection with the Bishop P C Singh’s cheating case, Enforcement Directorate(ED) and Income Tax Department (IT) are expected to contact Jabalpur Economic Offences Wing (EOW) today, TV9 Bharatvarsh reported. A team of ED has already reached Jabalpur to launch further investigation into the matter. According to News9live.com report, at the time of the interrogation, the bishop admitted to having 174 bank accounts in the names of his relatives. The link is:
https://www.news9live.com/state/madhya-pradesh/cheating-case-bishop-pc-singh-reveals-during-interrogation-he-holds-174-bank-accounts-in-names-of-relatives-195753
It’s high time Lay representatives became part of all financial matters both in the CNI and the Catholic Church. There are reports that in Kolkata the CNI head has several high-value properties in and around Kolkata and flaunts his king-size photographs at vantage points in Kolkata, especially around Kolkata maidan area. These upstarts are simply looting the Laity’s money and feathering their own nests.
All in the name of “poor carpenter’s son Jesus of Nazareth”!!! He had no place of his own to lay his head – birth place to burial place.
If this is the situation with CNI (one of the Christian groups), what about the “mighty Roman Catholic Church in India”? If we start digging, more skeletons will come out. Even if skeletons are brought out, the money and power crazy church authorities have various strategies to hide and suppress them.
“No one can serve two masters” said Jesus. But the selfish religious authorities always want and try to serve two masters – money and God. These shameless culprits must be given severe punishment.
These people ruin the name of the Christians as a whole by their actions, which cannot be justified. What right he had to keep 27 million rupees in cash in his residence? Did he not know that keeping so much of cash is against government rules? We must properly account for money, so that in case of an enquiry we can produce the accounts and be free. It looks like a troublesome matter to get out of the problem so easily. Need to wait and see the result.
According to the Hindustan Times of 8th September 2022:
“A complaint was received that the Board of Education Church of North India, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) Diocese’s Bishop P.C. Singh was using the fees received by educational institutes to run religious institutes. He also used the money for personal purposes. He changed the name of the original society and became its president,” Jabalpur Economic Offences Wing (EOW) superintendent of police Devendra Pratap Singh said.
The officers of EOW said it has recovered Rs 1.65 crore and USD 18,000 (Rs 14.3 lakh) during searches conducted at the residence and office of Church of North India Jabalpur Diocese’s bishop P.C. Singh in connection with a cheating case.
In this connection, on 8th October 2021, the Apostolic Nunciature in India issued a strongly-worded message to the Tamil Nadu clergy, asking it to stay away from holding positions in independent trusts and NGOs, saying that they become “financial and political power bases for the priests involved.”
A top source in Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council (TNBC) said: “In Tamil Nadu, there happen to be some priests who aspire to control the church, lobby for bishop posts and even use their political and money power to bully serving bishops for vested interests.” (Indian Express 29 October 2021).
In the light of Unity Octave prayers and ecumenical dialogues among various church denominations, the above seizure of cash (more to come) and “use of the money for personal purposes by bishops” is a wake-up call for the Indian Church as a whole.
Cash rich educational institutions are another easy temptation for corruption.
As the old saying goes “Absolute power corrupts absolutely “. This is even more TRUE of spiritual powers that are so much more difficult to bridle. It is a matter of shame for all Indian Christians, not just the CNI.
Coincidentally, heads of CNI Barrackpore Diocese were in Germany at the same time as Bishop P.C. Singh! Was there a common session on social entrepreneurship (siphon-off) on the Rhine Valley? Is the above seizure the tip of the iceberg?
According to Jabalpur EOW superintendent of police Devendra Pratap Singh, a case under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (dishonestly using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered by EOW last month against Bishop P.C. Singh and former assistant registrar B.S. Solanki after a preliminary inquiry supported the allegations made by the complainant.
The case study shows: (1) Transfer of school funds to church institutions (2) Name change of original society (3) Bishop’s usurping president’s post of the society.
• Under (1) there have been allegations of similar siphon-off and feathering one’s nest in other dioceses, including Calcutta where complaints have been lodged against one church head for “rampant corruption and large scale misappropriation of public funds (as chairman of premier institutions) and living more like a prince than the humble servant of the Holy Lord, under the veil of the Mitre and the Stole.”
• Under (2) without any knowledge of members/EGM/AGM, the name Catholic Association of Bengal was tampered and registered on 24.07.2008 as Catholic Association of Bengal, KOLKATA by the then office bearers. The sale of MoA booklets, PAN Card, Bank Accounts and IT Returns continued to bear the name: Catholic Association of Bengal. This manipulation was unearthed in 2018-19 by the newly elected office bearers during interaction with the Registrar of Societies. The tricksters were heavyweights on various Core Committees of the Archdiocese. They have been removed from membership and costly rectification exercise is in progress. The Archbishop, who is Ex-Officio Chairman of Catholic Association of Bengal, is fully aware of the developments.
There was a similar recovery of unaccounted cash worth Rs 9.66 crore from Father Anthony Madassary’s house at Pratappura in Jalandhar, by the Income Tax department (Source: Hindustan Times 05.04.2019).
Father Anthony is one of the four partners in ‘Sahodhaya’, a firm which supplies books and stationery to 45 schools run by the diocese and has an annual turnover of Rs 40 crore. Under which Canon Law do the Catholic Bishops of India allow priests to run financial fiefdom?