In accordance with criminal procedure laws the Investigative Committee is to run checks into media reports on committed or plotted crimes. A number of such reports were revealed yesterday during monitoring news on some federal TV channels.

One of the media reported that chair of Druzhba-2, a housing construction cooperative, located in Frunzensky District of the city of Yaroslavl, made an illegal decision to put in house bills a fine for the absence at cleaning day. The bills were received by elderly labor veterans who were physically unable to take part in the cleaning day. The Yaroslavl Region Office of the Investigative Committee launched a check into the incident to see if the chair’s actions qualify for abuse of authority under Article 201 of the RF Criminal Code.

The monitoring also revealed a report that a teacher at a daycare center in the town of Angarsk had taped children’s mouths which was confirmed by photos posted by the teacher in social medias. The Angarsk unit of the Investigative Committee’s Irkutsk Region Office is now checking it.

In addition, the Ivanovo Region Office of the Investigative Committee is running a check into media reports on abuse of power by officials of the Ivanovo Region Administration in constructing a road between the settlements of Ilyinskoye and Zhazhlevo. According to preliminary information, the construction of the road to connect the two settlements with the district center was started three years ago, but soon it was stopped and dumps started to fall apart. Despite considerable financing, the section of the road built near Ilyinskoye is only 1 kilometer long. Several villages are now cut off mainland because of spring floods.

The Investigative Committee’s Khabarovsk Garrison Military Department is checking media reports on contamination of Lake Petropavlovskoye. According to preliminary information about 17 sq km of the lake was contaminated by black oil. The source of the contamination and the guilty ones are being identified.

Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has ordered the Central Office to take all the checks under control.

At present procedural operations are underway to find out all the circumstances surrounding the incidents. If the information reported by media is proven to be true, probes will be opened and the guilty ones will be arrested.

Official spokesperson for the RF Investigative Committee                                                                       S.L. Petrenko