Eight recipients and an assistant development officer from the social welfare department are the targets of a formal complaint (FIR) filed on Wednesday by the police in this district regarding alleged fraud in the Chief Minister’s Mass Marriage Scheme.
Many brides and grooms who had already tied the knot were allegedly married again as part of a mass marriage program on January 25 at Maniyar Inter College.
Under the Chief Minister’s Mass Marriage Scheme, young men and women from low-income families get married.
Mantosh Singh, the house officer of Maniyar station, stated on Wednesday that a FIR was filed the previous evening against Sunil Kumar Yadav, the assistant development officer, and eight beneficiaries—Archana, Ranjana Yadav, Suman Chauhan, Priyanka, Sonam, Pooja, Sanju, and Ramita—based on a complaint filed by district social welfare officer Deepak Srivastava.
He said that charges of fraud led to the filing of the FIR.
According to Srivastava’s complaint, following the implementation of this scheme’s mass marriage program, it became apparent that previously married brides and grooms were getting remarried.
On January 29, a probe committee led by the chief development officer was established in this regard.
It was found in the probe that Archana of Manikapur village was married in June 2023. Apart from this, Ranjana Yadav and Suman Chauhan got married in March 2023, Priyanka got married in November 2023, Pooja got married a year ago, Sanju got married three years ago and Ramita got married in July 2023. Apart from this, Sonam’s marriage was not decided yet. All of them were not eligible under the Chief Minister’s Mass Marriage Scheme, the committee said in its report.
Ineligible applicants had applied illegally to get benefits under the scheme by hiding the actual facts, the report said. The department’s assistant development officer was negligent in examining the applications that led to this fraud.
A case has been registered into the matter and further investigation was on, the SHO said.
Funds for the mass marriage program held in the Maniyar development block have not yet been given to the recipients, according to district magistrate Ravindra Kumar. According to Kumar, a case has been filed against the assistant development officer and eight beneficiaries who were found to have committed crimes during the investigation.
He also said that anyone else found guilty would face consequences.
According to the government website, ₹51,000 is paid out of which ₹35,000 is given to the girl, ₹10,000 is used to buy marriage-related supplies, and ₹6,000 is used for the event.
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