The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has carried out searches under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at five locations across the country in connection with misappropriation of church funds.
The searches were carried out at the properties of the Church of North India (CNI) in Pune (Maharashtra), Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh), Jalandhar (Punjab), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal).
According to the Times of India, a first information report was registered against P.C. Singh, chairman of the Board Education Church of North India, Jabalpur, by the Economic Offence Wing in the city.
On the basis of the FIR, the ED initiated its investigation against Singh under various sections of Indian Penal Code.
During the searches, various incriminating documents have been recovered and seized, said an official release, the report added.
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Various office bearers of CNI, including Singh and former managing director of a trust under CNI, were found to be involved in the “gross misappropriation of church properties through sale or renting out at much lower prices by showing the properties as deteriorating and encroached,” an ED official told the newspaper.
The probe agency said that a one acre land with a building at the Satpura National Park and Pachmarhi hill station was rented out for a period of 15 years at Rs 12,500 per month to a private entity named Satpura Resorts Private Limited.
On March 15, 2023, the ED carried out searches at six premises related to Singh in Jabalpur, Mumbai, Ranchi and Nagpur. Three days later, on March 18, the probe agency searched three premises in Ranchi.
Singh was arrested by the ED on April 12 and was produced before the PMLA special court in Jabalpur on April 13. The court had granted ED the custody of Singh till April 27.
The ED said, per the report, it has revealed multiple instances of diversion of crores of rupees meant to be paid to the trust under CNI against the sale of properties.