Vigilance raids BoSEM, sleuths seize cashbooks
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, October 10 2014 :
A team of state vigilance department led by an additional SP conducted a three-hour raid at the office of the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur here today.
According to reports, the five-man team arrived at BoSEM at around 11 am after an FIR on mis-utilization of funds at the board was filed, and carried out investigation works at the account section till 2 pm.
Official sources said the vigilance team walked into the office of the deputy secretary (accounts) and sought the financial statements of BoSEM for the last ten years.
They studied the cashbooks for the period beginning from 2003-04 till date to check for anomalies in the entries.
The cashbooks were later confiscated by the vigilance investigators, reportedly after coming across records that raised their suspicion, and demanded the vouchers for the items in the cashbooks from the board's officials.
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The sources added that the officials could only provide vouchers pertaining to the tenure of the recently transferred board's chairman P Dhanakumar, but none for the past chairmen and secretaries.
Today's raid was believed to be an outcome of numerous complaints against the board alleging misuse of funds raising the need for an official visit to ascertain the truth of the charges.
No particular official was specifically named as the primary accused in the complaints but the common grievance centered on rampant financial irregularities at the board.
Over the years the board had been caught in a slew of controversies, mainly related to shady financial dealings.
The notable cases included the killing of a chairman inside his official chamber and the scandal over printing of textbooks.
Students' organisations and a militant group were among many who had voiced strong resentment on the textbook issue.