New Delhi: A joint team of Delhi and Manipur police Sunday arrested Kanarjit Kangujam, father of nine-year-old Manipuri climate activist Licypriya Kangujam, on charges of “forgery and cheating”, ThePrint has learnt.
Kanarjit Kangujam, known as K.K. Singh, was arrested on the basis of a complaint by a student from Nepal who had alleged Singh duped him into paying money to his organisation, the International Youth Committee.
Singh and his family, including Licypriya, have been staying in an apartment in New Delhi since he left Manipur in 2016.
“His house was raided and all incriminating articles were picked up. He is absconding in another case as well, so he will be investigated for both cases,” a senior officer with the Manipur police confirmed to ThePrint.
On 25 April 2016, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Imphal East had called Singh an “absconder” in another criminal case lodged in 2015 on charges of cheating and other offences.
According to the complaint lodged by Prajesh Kanhal, the Nepali student, Singh’s organisation had taken money in 2018 from him for participation in an international conference that was first postponed and then never took place. Requests for refunds were repeatedly denied, leading Kanhal to file a complaint with the Indian embassy in Nepal in 2020.
On 16 February this year, the Ministry of External Affairs took cognisance of the complaint, and forwarded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs, requesting that the “facts of the case” be ascertained, said the police.
The case was registered against Singh under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
The complaint
In his complaint, filed in February 2020, the student had said he paid the International Youth Committee, of which K.K. Singh is the chairman, Rs 30,000 to be able to participate in an international conference, “the Europe Exchange Youth Programme”, in 2018.
The programme was postponed to 2019, and despite making repeated requests for a refund, the student allegedly never heard back from the organisation. The event never took place, Kanhal said in the complaint.
“I enquired and found that more than 80 youngsters from different countries around the world have been claiming they are victims of IYC under various different events,” read the complaint letter, a copy of which was seen by ThePrint.
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