Police unearth pension scam in Delhi govt department, 6 held

The arrested persons were allegedly involved in preparing false and forged disability as well as death certificates for sanctioning monthly pension to ineligible persons

The Delhi Police crime branch on Friday said they had unearthed a widow and disabled persons pension scam involving the Delhi government’s social welfare, women and child development office at south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, after arresting six people, including four contractual employees of the department.

Police said the racket was in operation for nearly two years and, during this period, monthly pensions had been sanctioned to over 300 people on the basis of forged disability and death certificates. (Representational image)

The arrested persons were allegedly involved in preparing false and forged disability as well as death certificates for sanctioning monthly pension to ineligible persons. One of them, identified as 35-year-old Riyasat, was drawing a disability pension for himself while his wife had been drawing a widow pension, the police said.

Police said the racket was in operation for nearly two years and, during this period, monthly pensions had been sanctioned to over 300 people on the basis of forged disability and death certificates. Many instances of disability pension sanctioned to multiple people on the same person’s disability certificate as well as pension sanctioned to women beneficiaries on the basis of a man’s disability certificate have also been found during the investigation.

The crime branch said it also received information of a similar scam at the department office in northeast Delhi.

“We have seized 36 passbooks that mention the credited pension money, 180 online applications for disability pensions, 117 copies of Aadhaar cards related to approved widow pensions, and a list of 136 persons who are already obtaining pensions on the basis of forged disability certificates,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Monika Bhardwaj.

The other arrested persons were identified as Sahil,30, Balram alias Balraj,33, Mubarak,37, Rajesh Kumar, 25, and Jai Prakash,33. While Riyasat and Sahil were private persons who arranged candidates for the pension schemes, the other four men worked as contractual employees at the social welfare, women and child development department’s office at Lajpat Nagar.

Riyasat and Sahil charged between ₹10,000 and ₹15,000 from each applicant for helping him or her in getting the pension sanctioned by using forged documents. The arrested contractual employees were getting money from the duo for clearing the files and sanctioning the pension, said DCP Bhardwaj.

Police said that the scam came to the fore after a woman filed a complaint, alleging that two persons named Riyasat and Yunus (father of Sahil) were running private offices in Jaitpur and sanctioning window and disability pensions on the Delhi government’s behalf. The woman told the police that during the first Covid-19 lockdown, her husband stopped working because of the pandemic and it led to a financial crisis in her family. She went to their office and asked for financial help.

Riyasat and Yunus, who is a social worker, told her that the Delhi government is running a scheme through which she could get ₹2,500 every month. They took her Aadhaar card, Pan card and two photos for registration. Riyasat and Yunus’s son Sahil told her that she will have to pay ₹15,000 them as processing charge after the money is credited to her account, the police said.

“From January 2021, ₹2,500 started coming into her account. She would withdraw the money and gave it to the duo as promised. Later, she learnt that the amount was being credited on account of Delhi government’s Vidhva Pension Yojna (Widow Pension Scheme) despite her husband being alive. She enquired into the matter and found that many people in her neighbourhood were fraudulently getting similar amounts of money. She approached us and filed a complaint. After thorough investigation, we have arrested six men for running the scam,” added DCP Bhardwaj.

Explaining the syndicate’s modus operandi, the DCP said that Riyasat and Sahil also hired agents who lured people in need and convinced them to apply for the pension schemes. Those who agreed for were taken to the offices of the duo who then directed them to deposit their IDs and other documents required for registering for the schemes.

“Before applying for the schemes, the applicants were told that the dup would keep the pension for the first 10 months, as they were helping them get the pension,” added Bhardwaj.

Riyasat’s interrogation revealed that after his father’s death three years ago, he and his mother had visited the Lajpat Nagar office of the district officer of women and child development to apply for her widow pension. During the time he met Sahil who cleared the pension scheme files with the help of Balraj and Mubarak. He requested Sahil to get his disability pension cleared and his wife’s widow pension. Sahil took ₹14,000 from him and Riyasat’s files for both the schemes and cleared them. Thereafter, Riyasat also started his own office and hired local women as his agents to collect applications from people in their neighbourhood, the police said.

The Delhi government condemned the misuse of government credentials.

“A thorough investigation must be conducted if such an incident has been reported. Misuse of government credentials in such a manner is a highly condemnable act. The police should proceed with their own investigation and the concerned department, too, will conduct an intricate enquiry into the matter. The Delhi government had issued strict directions to the directors concerned to verify each and every case properly as well as crosscheck the validation of all the life certificates every year to prevent such misuse,” said a Delhi government spokesperson.