East Khasi Hills District police has filed the first charge sheet against a chowkidar of the Mawkhar Presbyterian Church for embezzlement of church funds.
Superintendent of Police, Sylvester Nongtnger today said, “The investigation will however continue to ascertain whether there is complicity of others in the crime.”
Alfast Bareh the chowkidar was arrested on August 3, 2019 for fraudulent transactions amounting to about Rs. 3.26 crore from the church treasury.
A FIR against Bareh was lodged by the church that a fraud was detected by the church committee which has been going on since 2013.
Nongtnger said that fraud was suspected to have been committed by the treasurer of the church who has been entrusted for the post since 2009 till date and aided by Bareh, residing at Mission Compound, in depositing the money collected every Sunday from the member of the church in the State Bank of India, Bara Bazaar, Shillong.
During the course of investigation Bareh was arrested for his involvement in the misappropriation of church money.
Earlier, before his arrest Bareh had told media persons that he had misused the money belonging to the Church since 2013.
According to him, the Church members trusted him and would thus ask him to deposit in the bank the money collected from the faithful in various forms of offerings, but he never did.
He confessed that made fake deposit slips, bank statement, passbooks to show that the offerings has been deposited into the account of the church. Bareh also said that he diverted the money that he had misappropriated into contract works that he used to undertake.
In fact he said that the Church does not have any account of how much money he had misappropriated, but it was he himself who had kept records of the account he had misappropriated.
