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Runaway Inner Mongolia school principal arrested for fraud

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-24 20:56

HOHHOT - A former principal of a traditional medical school in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region who had fled to Mongolia has been arrested on fraud charges, local police said Tuesday.

Ethnic Mongolian Batuzhangga, also known as Batzangaa, 35, the former head of the Ordos Mongolian-Tibetan Medical School, was formally arrested in Ordos City on November 12 after he was repatriated from Mongolia on October 4, said Wang Huishi, director of the Ordos Municipal Public Security Bureau.

He was accused of fabricating student roster and falsifying accounts to illegally obtain special funds of 102,000 yuan (15,000 U.S. dollars) from a governmental poverty-alleviation program when he served as principal of the school, Wang said.

Batuzhangga founded the privately-owned secondary medical school in 2001, Wang said.

Police began probing Batuzhangga's case after local residents laid complaints in May that he owed large debts, but had disappeared, Wang said.

Police found Batuzhangga suddenly announced a vacation at the school on May 25 and fled to Ulan Bator the next day with his wife and daughter, Wang said.

Local police went to Ulan Bator on October 1 and handled the case together with Mongolian police, Interpol and Mongolian immigration authorities, on the basis of a cooperation agreement between Chinese and Mongolian police signed in Beijing in 1998, Wang said.

"On October 4, the criminal suspect Batuzhangga was repatriated to China with the great support of Mongolian immigration authorities, " Wang said. His wife and daughter were also sent back to the country.

During their investigation, police also found that Batuzhangga's school had kept improper accounts of 5.2 million yuan and much of the money had been transferred to the personal account of Batuzhangga's wife, Wang said.

Batuzhangga was detained on October 5 on a series of charges, including illegally appropriating public deposits, intentionally destroying accounting reports, and fraud, Wang said.

Police were still investigating the case, he said.

The state-run Ordos Municipal Health School had taken over Batuzhangga's medical school, he said.

"Classes resumed on August 31. Teachers are making up missed lessons for the students," he added.