Residence of senior AG officer raided by CBI, disproportionate assets found

Imphal: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Wednesday had raided the residence of a senior accounts officer working at the Accountant General (AG) office in Manipur.

The officer is identified to be Budhichandra Naorem who is a resident of Uripok Ahanthem Leika in Imphal West district.

Budhichandra Naorem hails from Kakching and had joined the service as a clerk on August 5, 1988. His monthly salary during the period of January 2010 to October 2020 sums up to only Rs 68,64,581. He had also taken a housing loan of Rs 25 lakh from a bank in 2017, as mentioned in the FIR.

After the Sessions Judge had issued the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act issued by a search warrant in connection with a case registered by the Imphal branch of the CBI's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the raids were carried out at the residence of the senior accounts officer.

Nobody was allowed to move out of the residence during the raid operation was carried out.

The sleuth has managed to recover Rs 5 lakh in cash, gold ornaments worth Rs 15 lakh and land purchase documents among others. The list of disproportionate assets owned by Naorem comes to an extent of Rs 54,42,269 which he could not account according to the FIR.

On October 16, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Imphal branch had carried out a similar raid at the residence of another senior official at the Accountant General (AG) office, recovering a staggering amount of Rs 54 lakh in cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 24 lakh.

The official was identified to be Konjengbam Ibothem, hailing from Wangoo Sandangkhong, however, residing at Sagolband Meino Leirak in the Imphal police station area.

The CBI had filed a case against Ibothem (u/s 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (b) of Penal Code (PC) Act, 1988, amended for 2018) for holding disproportionate assets.

Ibothem had allegedly acquired huge assets, both movable and immovable, under his name and that of his family members, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income. The assets, amounting to Rs 58,75,321 were acquired during the period between August 1, 2005, and July 30, 2020.

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