The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked an assistant professor, who also held the post of security officer of the Manipur University, and a former Home Guards Commandant, for alleged illegal recruitment of security personnel in lieu of bribes.
The accused have been identified as N. Sanatomba Singh, assistant professor/security officer of the university, and the then Home Guards Commandant, S.P. Thaisi.
About a year ago, the agency received a complaint about the deployment of nine persons on the university campus after their illegal recruitment as Home Guards personnel. Further inquiry led to the identification of 24 such cases. The agency was able to locate 20 of the beneficiaries, who had been receiving salaries ranging from ₹8,217 to ₹9,860 from the university.
The beneficiaries had been allotted employment numbers, four of which did not exist in the Home Guards’ records and the others were allocated to other personnel. Several of them told the agency that they came to know about the recruitment drive through their families and that sums ranging from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹1.85 lakh were paid for getting the job.
While some beneficiaries received the orders of deployment on the university campus through their family members, others got it through email. None of them had ever visited the Home Guards office.
As it turned out, from time to time, the accused security officer had secured approvals from the university administrator for the deployment of Home Guards personnel. However, instead of sending a requisition to the Home Guards, he allegedly conspired with the then Commandant to undertake illegal recruitments by receiving illegal gratification.
