Bhopal: The investigation into the Madhya Pradesh marriage assistance scheme scam, which defrauded the government of an estimated Rs 30.4 crore between 2019 and 2021, covers 93 gram panchayats (village councils) and 20 banks, according to a deputy superintendent of police of the Bhopal unit of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The scam involved the fraudulent marriages of thousands of young women so that the racketeers could apply for benefits under the Chief Minister Kanya Vivah Yojna, which provides the daughters of labourers with financial assistance of Rs 51,000 upon their marriage.
The scam was uncovered on December 22, 2021, when Umakant Sharma, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of the legislative assembly (MLA) sought information from Brijendra Pratap Singh, the state labour minister, about the money given to beneficiaries of the Kanya Vivah Yojna in the Sironj Janpad panchayat.
Sharma told the media that he sought this information because two beneficiaries from Ghutua village had complained to him that they had not received the full amount of Rs 51,000, a claim he had investigated and found to be true. After that, he said, “I sought details of the scheme’s beneficiaries in Sironj block and learnt there were nearly 6,000 of them.”
When Singh, in a reply to Sharma’s question, said that a total of Rs 30.4 crores had been provided to 5,976 beneficiaries of the scheme in the Sironj Janpad panchayat, Sharma demanded a state-wide investigation into the…
