In the Amreli district of Gujarat, four MGNREGA department employees have been charged with embezzling Rs 3.30 crore from the public coffers.
The accused created duplicate job cards between 2015 and 2019, opened accounts in other banks under the names of job card holders, made fictitious beneficiary documents, made payments into these accounts and then withdrew the money.
The defendants were named as technical assistant Ashwin Shiyal, assistant programme officer Shaktisinh Jadeja, assistant account officer Vimalsinh Basan, and MIS coordinator Jignesh Vadia.
On Tuesday evening, Taluka Development Officer Vijay Sonagra in his complaint said: “Comptroller Auditor General’s December 2021 audit report had noted that more than Rs 3 crore payment is made to third party. Taking serious note of audit report, Amreli Rural Development Agency’s Director in September 2022 ordered Taluka Development Officer to investigate it. After three months of investigation, he submitted a report to the Director in the first week of December.”
Sonagra’s investigation revealed that from 2015–16 to 2018–19, a total of Rs 3,30,26,548 crore was paid to third parties through 28,688 transactions. The money was then transferred to 4900 job card holders in 36 villages through 3,310 accounts.
The defendants have been detained on charges of deception, criminal mischief, forgery and common-intent conspiracy.