The rifleman of Manipur police posted at MPTC is identified as Laishram Meeteingamba, 36, son of L Shyam of Yourabung Khunou, who is also the husband of ward member of Sawombung Village No 5 Laishram ongbi Sobita Leima.

The other person is identified as Kamei Gaidonchung, 45, son of K Monthaga of Sawombung Kabui Khunjao who is also the husband of ward member of Sawombung Village No 2 Kamei Rajani Kabui.

It is reported that inquiries against the three arrested started since December 23, 2021 based on a report. However, FIR were lodged against the three on Tuesday after detecting that 13 bogus job cards and 63 multiple job cards were created by them, and they had also opened various bank accounts of job card holders without the consent of the genuine job card holders.

As per the report, at least seven bogus job cards were found created by Koijam Sundar, 10 multiple job cards were found created by Kamei Gaidonchung and 16 multiple job cards were created by Laishram Meeteingamba.

Speaking to the media at its station in Imphal West, Vigilance and Anti Corruption Police said that unlike normal police stations, the vigilance police station lodges FIR only after a thorough enquiry; therefore, it took almost four months to lodge the FIR against the perpetrators.

He appealed to all the citizens to report to the Vigilance and Anti Corruption police station for any anomaly in MGNREGA related works, particularly non-payment of wages by the concerned after the wages are released by the state government, and further assured to initiate action against the perpetrators.

The three arrested individuals were produced before the court with a prayer to remand them in police custody for further investigation of the case. The court granted the prayer and remanded them to custody for three days.