In one of the major anti-corruption actions under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), eight men including Gujarat Congress Vice President Hira Jotva, his son Digvijay Jotva, and another accused Rajesh Tailor were arrested by the Gujarat Police on Saturday over an alleged scam under the Act involving misappropriation of funds of the government meant to be utilized in the rural employment schemes.
Bharuch Superintendent of Police (SP) Mayur Chawda said the arrests were on the basis of a primary probe carried out by the District Development Office (DDO) after there were allegations against malpractices in the implementation of MGNREGA in 56 villages. The audit in 11 villages showed a lot of deviations, with others falsifying documents, misuse of funds and conspiracy to embezzle government funds.
According to SP Chawda, the inquiry has also revealed that MGNREGA norms were not followed, and in this case, the mandated 60:40 ratio with material and labour was not maintained. “We have conducted surveys at the project sites; some of the materials used in those sites did not correspond with the bills presented. In addition, more work was badly engineered or not done at all,” as he explained.
The fraudulent scheme is said to have concerned the agencies Jalaram and Murlidhar, which were allegedly run by Hira Jotva in a proxy ownership. Investigators discovered that money is being moved into the accounts of relatives of Jotva. His son, Digvijay Jotva, had enabled himself to be found receiving government money into his own personal account and was arrested by the district of Gir-Somnath. Another major actor was Rajesh Tailor, who was apprehended under allegations of depositing forged documents to warrant the public fund.
In addition, SP Chawda also confirmed the establishment of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate further. It was a scam made by producing false job cards, channelling the amount of money to those who were not employed and abusing the money of the government by using it on personal activities. There are likely to be more arrests, he said, and he threatened stern legal proceedings against every culprit concerned.
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