Imphal, July 02: The lid over the ex-gratia scam, that rocked the State a few years back, has blown over with the police zeroing in on the identity of the king pin behind the fraudulent withdrawal of ex-gratia payments.

According to the investigation conducted by the police till date, the master brain behind the modus operandi has been identified as one Md Abdul Karim alias MM Karim (40) of Lilong Turel Ahanbi Obakthong.

Significantly, the CID Crime Branch, has managed to net some of his accomplices while a man hunt has been launched for the others.

The most notable accomplice of the master mind is identified as one Md Hesamuddin alias Hesam alias Shyam also from the same locality of Karim.

Hesamuddin works as an LDC at the SDO office of Tamenglong.

The case dates back to August 21, 1998 when the then Imphal West DC issued an order to pay compensation of Rs 8,40,000 to 20 civilians killed in extraordinary circumstances.

Officially the amount was released to the family members of the 20 civilians but as something fishy was smelt, a number of complaints were lodged with the then Imphal West SP.

Thereafter an investigation was initiated into the matter and of the 20 payments made, 12 was found to have been withdrawn fraudulently.

The first man to be picked up in connection with the fraud was Hesamuddin, the LDC.

However he managed to give the slip to the police.

Later he was re-arrested on May 20 this year and subjected to intense interrogation.

Police came to know of the existence of a well organized gang involved in the scam following the interrogation of Hesamuddin.

After an intense man hunt, the master brain of the scam, Md Karim was arrested on June 28 this year.

Due interrogation of the two prime suspects, revealed that the gang was �formed� in 1997.As disclosed by Hesamuddin, the other members of the gang are, L Kamla Devi of Thoubal Ningombam, her younger brother L Dayamoie, Md Abdul Salam of Lilong Turel Ahanbi Ubakthong, Puyam Sumati Devi of Thoubal Kshetri Leikai, Thongam Memcha Devi of Singjamei Thongam Leikai, Loitongbam Chabi of Thoubal Ningombam and Ashangbi of Singjamei Thongam Leikai.

The gang members adopted ingenious methods to make easy money.

One practice was to dub militants killed in shoot outs as civilians and after getting due documents, by hook or crook, the gang members would lay claim for compensation.

In some cases, they gave a share to the family members too.

In other cases, they would pose as family members of the deceased and after producing forged documents, receive the compensation amount.

Even in cases of deaths, not related to insurgency, the gang members would get their acts together and get FIRs registered and later claim the compensation.

For example, one case pertaining to the arrest of a bootlegger on January 20, 1995, was changed to the case of the killing of one Md Hamid by militants at Tera Bazar.

The gang claimed the ex-gratia paid for the killing.

Hamid was from Sangaiyumpham Cherapur.

The compensation claim was in the first place filed by the wife of the deceased.

This particular case was executed and perfected by the master mind, Karim.

After a complaint was filed by the wife, the police started investigating.

As the ex-gratia was paid through the Bank of Baroda, the bank provided the vital link by producing the photograph of the person who had withdrawn the money.

The photo turned out to be of one Waheeda alias Wahid of Lilong Turel Ahanbi Ubakthong.

This set the cops on the trail of Md Karim.

In another case the gang members also withdrew a sum of Rs 50 thousand on the death of a PLA cadre who was killed in a shoot out with security personnel on July 28, 1996 at Chajing Awang Leikai.

The gang members managed to procure documents to dub the deceased as a civilian! In a neat operation, the gang members submitted documents, proclaiming the deceased as a civilian and identified him as one Romen while in fact the deceased was named Jiten.

The name of the father of deceased was also changed from Meino to Noren.

One of the gang members then posed as the wife of the deceased and claimed the ex-gratia.

Jiten's family in fact stays at Imphal and he was a bachelor.

The police learnt that the family did not claim any ex-gratia from the Govt.A number of militants killed in encounter were neatly dubbed as civilians and ex-gratia were withdrawn in their names.

The killed militants against whom they claimed the ex-gratia include, Ok Sanjit alias Thiknemba of Thoubal Ningombam Leirak, H Momo alias Laba of Sega Road Thouda Bhabok Leikai, K Basudeb of Yaiskul Police Lane, Ch Robindro of Haobam Marak Irom Leikai and Ch Koklen of Haobam Marak Chingtham Leikai.

Cooking up a fictitious name, KR Kali of Telipati, the gang members withdrew Rs 20,000 claiming that the said person was killed by militants at Iroishemba on June 20, 1993.In another case the gang members withdrew ex-gratia for the killing of one Henshakhup Haokip of Old Lambulane on Nov 26, 1997 at Thangmeiband by militants.

The family members of the deceased had not claimed any compensation.

Altogether the gang members managed to fraudulently withdraw a sum of about Rs 4.15 lakhs.

The gang members not only produced forged documents to wrongly identify the deceased persons, but also procured forged documents of post mortem reports.

The investigation reports said that the involvement of some employees of the Imphal West DC and SP cannot be ruled out in the scam.

Forged documents pertaining to the post mortem reports submitted by the gang have been unearthed.

Mention may be made here that Medico Legal Specialist Dr Ksh Manglem was at first placed under suspension as the gang members submitted forged documents with his signature.

However as the truth emerged, the doctor has been reinstated.

The master brain Md Karim was produced before the Court recently and he has been remanded to custody till July 9.

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