Imphal, January 10: Striking a stand, General Manager of Imphal Urban Co-operative Bank, K Lukhoi, who was earlier declared a 'guilty' official by the proscribed RPF/PLA, has come out in the open to disclaim the charges of the outfit.

Speaking to reporters yesterday somewhere at Churachandpur district yesterday, Lukhoi said, "After appending my signature on the statements I had made, I was again told to sign another statement, on the ground that the 'elders' of the RPF have insisted on this".

This was on the day that I was to be released after days of captivity in the custody of the RPF from January 1 to 5, " said Lukhoi and added that the earlier statement he had signed was annulled.

On the charges of the RPF that he had fudged his date of birth, Lukhoi explained that in his application to IUCB his date of birth was entered as 1/3/48 while it should have been 1/3/49 .

"The error in my date of birth did not benefit me in any way, as it entailed losing one more year of my service period," said Lukhoi and added that the error was included in the service book prepared by the bank, merit and seniority list.

"The then president of the Board of Director Kh Gourakishore gave me one opportunity to clear the error in the date of birth," said Lukhoi and added that inspite of an application submitted, the Board of Directors in its meeting held on 17/2/2006, decided to go by the erroneous date of birth of 1/3/1948 .

"However I submitted an application to the Registrar of Co-operative Society and hence an order was issued to annul the earlier order fixing my date of birth as 1/3/1948 by the Board of Directors," recalled Lukhoi and added that the same was conveyed to the Board Director.

"Despite this I was removed from my post but, the Board of Directors in its meeting held on June 14, 2006, restored me to my original post," said Lukhoi.

Referring to his date of birth, Lukhoi said that the matter was settled with the knowledge of the Registrar of the Co-operative Society and after the issue reached the Gauhati High Court.

On the purchase of two ATMs, Lukhoi said that on September 5, 2006 the then AGM N Nimai was contacted by a Kolkata based firm, Corus (India) Limited.

Following this, Nimai brought to the notice of the Board to issue an order to sanction Rs 9.4 lakhs for the same.

Lukhoi said that the order to purchase the ATMs was issued by the Board of Directors without the nod from the DGM and DM and other top ranking officials of the bank.

The GM signed the supply order, said Lukhoi further.

Later Nimai again brought to the notice of the Board of Directors to sanction Rs 15.18 lakhs to purchase two ATMs, recalled Lukhoi.

At that point of time, questions were raised over the feasibility of the installing the ATM machines without the required infrastructure, said Lukhoi.

After these questions were raised, all the authority of the Board of Directors were revoked ahead of the March 28 meeting convened to discuss the matter, said Lukhoi.

The order was issued by the then president of the Board and the Rs 15.28 lakhs was released/sanctioned on his free will.

After the matter reached the Reserve Bank of India, the RBI authority conveyed that the ATM machines were bought by contravening all conventions, said Lukhoi and added that intimations were sent to the supplier/company (Corus) to sell it off.

However there were no answers from the side of the company/supplier, he added.

Later the matter reached the attention of the Govt and the Board of Directors was suspended for its misdeeds in purchasing the ATMs, informed Lukhoi.

The president of the IUCB Employees Association who was also present at the meeting said that they were also summoned when the Bank Manager, Lukhoi was summoned by the RPF.

The president of the employees said that after the Govt suspended nine employees a case was filed in the Court.

The Court ruled in the favour of some of the employees and ordered that some of the suspended employees are members of the Board of Administrators.

However after the Court gave its ruling, the RPF asked them to withdraw the case, he said.

Since the order from the RPF came from a 'responsible' person, the 15 member executive member decided to tender their resignations enmasse, he claimed.

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